Life has two rules: Number one, never quit; Number two, always remember rule number one.

If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

People do not retire. They are retired by others.

Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven't; there's no proof of it.

Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.

Roaming through the jungle of Ohs and Ahs searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats.

There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.

Playing bop is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

Every man prays in his own language.

You've got to find a way of saying it without saying it.

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.

Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.

New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillac's, and the beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.

I don't need time, I need a deadline.

I don't need time. What I need is a deadline!

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It's not an occupation or profession, it's a compulsion.

Every intersection in the road of life is an opportunity to make a decision.

A goal is a dream with a finish line.