I guess, you know, if I didn't make it with the piano, I guess I would've been the biggest bum.

We have two kids, my wife and myself.

I don't know what other people are doing - I just know about me.

I'd go stupid collecting and counting my money.

I never though much about race.

I can shoot pool, and I can play ping-pong. I'm pretty good at those games.

I guess, you know, if I didn't make it with the piano, I guess I would've been the biggest bum.

Everybody in all countries tries to play jazz.

All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.

Be-bop wasn't developed in any deliberate way.

If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord.

All musicians are potential band leaders.

The loudest noise in the world is silence.

There are no wrong notes; some are just more right than others.

The piano ain't got no wrong notes.

The word 'iconic' is used too frequently - an icon is a statue carved in wood. It was shocking at first, when I got that reference. It was a responsibility, and it's impossible to live up to - you're supposed to be dead, for one thing.

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation with any race or nation known to history, but the torch to be handed down from race to race from age to age.

You have a right to say no. Most of us have very weak and flaccid 'no' muscles. We feel guilty for saying no. We get ostracized and challenged for saying no, so we forget it's our choice. Your 'no' muscle has to be built up to get to a place where you can say, 'I don't care if that's what you want. I don't want that. No.'

When I'm feeling down on myself or not feeling good about who I am, or maybe something happened and I'm feeling depressed, I eat to fill that void. Afterwards I'll beat myself up about it. I regret doing it, but I'll turn around and do it again.

Adequacy is sufficient.

You must dream big and dream often. Take risks and see what happens.

I've always been the king of silence. I've always been a minimalist comedian. I've taken my influence from Jack Benny, who was the king of that... I've always done 'less is more.'

The object of this competition is not to be mean to the losers but to find a winner. The process makes you mean because you get frustrated.

Love is made by trust, respect, and caring.

I think people seem to want to read pieces that are shorter but not as short as the pieces they can read in small bites on the Internet. It may be that the sort of long essays are hitting a sweet spot between the tiny morsels online and the full-length book.

Most spiders eat and remake their webs every night.

With fiction, you can take something that bothers you, or that you don't have in clear focus, and you can put it under as much stress as you want. Really get underneath the skin. With nonfiction, you're restricted to what happened.

You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

Stress on fast growing companies comes from a lot of different places. The one that is often the largest, and creates the most second-order issues, is the composition of the leadership team. More specifically, it's specific people on the leadership who don't have the scale experience their role requires at a particular moment in time.

Take the time today to understand your contribution to any bad event you've just been through.

I felt ashamed for what I had done. I dont have any excuses. I did what I did. I take full responsibility for myself and my actions. I wouldnt pawn this off on anybody. Im sorry it happened. And I hurt people.

Without whining and without making myself a tragic figure, there is no replacement for the loss of your privacy. It's a huge sacrifice.

Some girls go for bad boys because they like the challenge of changing them - which is usually unrealistic.

Superwoman is more of a performer, which Lilly isn't. Having said that, I guess both of them are completely over the top, dramatic and full of energy.

New York is a much more bourgeois city, more of a tourist attraction than a muscular metropolis. It's lost moxie and a rough energy, while gaining grace and friendliness. I love both versions of the city, but I wish the prosperous Manhattan would become a little easier for young people to afford.

Don't cling to fame. You're just borrowing it. It's like money. You're going to die, and somebody else is going to get it.

No other entertainer in the world ever took the risks that Liberace took.

I'm a Detroit kid who grew up with that assembly line mentality: You go to work to make money.

The word is the Verb, and the Verb is God.