I consider myself a sit-down comedian really, as much as anything else. I love comedy. Life is a cosmic joke.

If you've never felt that you quite got a hold of it, you just feel that before you die, you've got to try and get it right once. And hope that the experience you have makes up for the some of the diminishing energy.

I find it hard to take rock groups very seriously or treat them with respect. There is something absurd about these gloomy young men getting together and banging away.

When I'm singing I try not be a singer with a capital S. I just try to get it out so I feel comfortable with it.

People who had empires, unfortunately, want them back eventually, somehow, someway.

I can't imagine my life without the extraordinary bebop jazz revolution in New York in late '40s and '50s.

There are people I would like to work with. Its a bit harder, because I live out in the sticks anyway, and plus being in a wheelchair means that I cant really circulate. So I tend to stick to my own thing.