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

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.

Dr. King's leadership reaffirmed the promise of our democracy: that everyday people, working together, have the power to change our government and our institutions for the better.

I'd hate to be really beautiful on telly and then have everyone go, 'It's all make-up and lighting.'

Heavy metal is a universal energy its the sound of a volcano. Its rock its earth shattering. Somewhere in our primal being we understand.

I try firstly to make buildings humane.

Everything's wrong on Wikipedia.

I can't say that I have ever been fanatical about a show. To be honest, I'm not a big TV watcher. When I do watch TV, I watch the news.

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

My greatest fear is the Iranians acquire a nuclear weapon and give it to a terrorist organization. And there is a real threat of them doing that.

The knowledge that refuge is available, when and if needed, makes the silent inferno of the desert more easily bearable. Mountains complement desert as desert complements city, as wilderness complements and completes civilization.

Carbon zero simply means that the emissions you are releasing either are zero or balance out to zero.

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.

Everything has to be organised for kids in London - you can't just walk three roads to see a friend.

The next generation has always been and will be better than the previous one. If it is not, then the world would not be moving forward.

It takes a village to run the Big Man - a village of doctors.

I studied the Bible and philosophy in college, and I think in a certain sense that's the kind of stuff that still makes my brain work.

Walter Cronkite was the last newsman everyone trusted in the same way that the Beatles were the last music everyone loved and Marilyn was the last star everyone concurred was worthy of the word.

Personally, I think life offers us the opportunity to take chances and make changes all the time.

Historically, more people have died of religion than cancer.

I enjoy watching sitcoms where the team behind it have successfully created a whole alternate reality that you can enter into for half an hour every week.

I honestly think that with every song you release you have to keep winning your own fans over again.

I always try to be cautiously optimistic.

You can stay true to yourself and your friends, you can do the right thing, you can do with your life whatever you want to. I think that's a lovely message.

But, as always, Mr. Rooney would come over and shake your hand and congratulate you on a good game, no matter what the situation was.