I see what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong.
[On bebop years] All I did was sing 'How High the Moon. ' It seemed like the only song I ever sang.
Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.
It isn't where you came from, its where you're going that counts.
I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt … she personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.
Music is the universal language. . . it brings people closer together.
Everybody wants to know about my style and how it came about. It's no big secret. It's the way I feel.
I'm a real dude from a real place and I never express myself through social sites. I don't feed into it, man. That's not real life.
If people didn't give a damn, I wouldn't be in the position I'm in. I try not to lose sight of that.
When things have gone really wrong in my life, I've cried like a child. I have really, really cried. I cry it out. Two-three days I cry, and then I'm like, enough, time to deal with reality and figure a way out. This is the way I have dealt with everything.
Speaking up for America has become a lonely ordeal.