I don't have perfect pitch, but I have relative pitch. I'm glad I don't have perfect pitch because perfect pitch can drive you crazy.

As a matter of fact they'd blacken us down. I guess there's a reason that according to what the Caucasian wanted us to look like. He wanted us to look-if we were Black, then he had his idea of what we look like.

I knew exactly what I was, and there was no hang-up with me. None whatsoever. The fact that the pigment of my skin maybe being lighter brown than other people of my race, maybe some of them, but you know our race has all colors.

It was my band. I organized the band and Dizzy was in the band. Dizzy was the first musical director with the band. Charlie Parker was in the band. But, no, no, that was my band.

When Byrd came out of there, he had written a lot things while he was in the hospital.

It taught me something. It taught you your craft.

I just went to Harvard a little while, because I graduated from Armstrong High School in Washington and then I went up there but I didn't stay that long because I went into show business.

If you want to be a doctor, a lawyer you must go to college. But if you want to be a musician or such, study your craft. Study music.

You know, times change and the elements change along with it. The elements of success. And my son's very successful. He's doing very well. And I have a younger daughter who sings.

Bud Johnson, God rest his soul of fame, a tenor saxophonist. Bud was always a big, big, big booster of mine and he always when I first met Bud in Pittsburgh when he came through there, he heard me sing and he wanted me to come to Chicago.

I'm used to hearing myself. My own voice.

When you're playing music, say for instance, you're playing a part of the band and you're looking at your music, your horn is down into the stand. This way, it's up and it goes right on out to the audience, you know?

I don't have perfect pitch, but I have relative pitch. I'm glad I don't have perfect pitch because perfect pitch can drive you crazy.

I think a song that's got something to say. I'm not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don't last. But I like a song that tells a story and has some meat to it, you know, that means something.

Piano should be the one. Yeah, because that's your basis. Everything is right there in front of you.

Oh, yeah. I know Dizzy. For years he's been my buddy way, way, way back. Dizzy is one of the most astute guys and one of the most learned guys in the world and knows exactly what he's doing musically.

L.A. is kind of laid back, but New York, everybody is out there for that buck, you know.

My youngest daughter sings. She's going to be very good. She's graduated from Music School and she's been working down around and getting her feet wet, you know. I had her out with me for a year just showing her the ropes a little bit, but she's going to be all right.

I was still in school at the time and Cab was very popular and everybody was doing Cab Calloway so I did.

I'm a firm believer and I think my religion is inside.

You can't sing about love unless you know about it.

I was so enamored with the idea of being in show business so everything was bright to me. I mean, I didn't think of it as being tough and things like that.

Today the kids that are out now they make a hit record and they put them right out on the stage with 10,000 people out there and they don't know anything about the business yet.

We also have to make sure our children know the history of women. Tell them the rotten truth: It wasn't always possible for women to become doctors or managers or insurance people. Let them be armed with a true picture of the way we want it to be.

Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.

Everything is going to be connected to cloud and data... All of this will be mediated by software.

Some of the great characters that I've played had to be transformational.

My cooking philosophy, what I try to do, is to make a cuisine where the produce and the product shines, compared to some current trends that are maybe more adding additional things, like molecular cuisine, with a lot of additives and chemicals, which are now showing that they could be bad for your health.

You know full well as I do the value of sisters' affections: There is nothing like it in this world.

When I do uptempo songs, I like to bring in the funk and world music and different elements.

The Pilgrim and the Puritan whom we honor tonight were men who did a great deal of work in the world. They had their faults and their - shortcomings, but they were not slothful in business and they were most fervent in spirit.

Life is challenging but I'm always up for a challenge.

Aristotle wrote the 'Poetics' 2,400 years ago. It's really an instruction manual for aspiring filmmakers. It's as valid today as it was then.

Every morning is a battle between the superego and the id, and I am a mere foot soldier with mud and a snooze button on her shield.

But just because it burns doesn't mean you're gonna die. You've gotta get up and try, try, try.

Being a parent does not give you an excuse for bad manners.

The rise in world oil prices has been larger than anyone forecast.

In wilderness is the preservation of the world.

Many people mistakenly think of farce as broad low comedy. In fact, it's polished high comedy.

The ability to convince people of the wackiest notions - and both parties can do it - it's part of the dumbing down of America that's really highly problematic.

White privilege is the other side of racism.

Those who understand only what can be explained understand very little.

In 'Fifty Shades,' seemingly, Christian has all the power and control - but actually, Anastasia does.

At one point, people are going to have to realize that maybe I know what I'm doing.

There are dark shadows on the earth but its lights are stronger in the contrast.

I've just become obsessed with ballroom dancing. I signed up for the introductory course, which was like a four-week thing. By the end of it, I was hooked. I love it. It's sort of flirty, but it's not sexual. I can't quit until I've got it down and I can really dance. I'm there four or five times a week.

My focus has always been on connecting with consumers in a meaningful way.