I was married for 36 years but now I'm free.

Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important.

I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth."

It was messed up, because in 1947 my family moved to Seattle and I had to get up at 5:00 o'clock in the morning to catch the ferry back to Bremerton every morning because I was Boys Club president.

I look back and say, "This must have been somebody else." I am not going to tell you that when I was 4, I dreamed about all of this.

I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe.

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.