- I'm a telephone freak, the greatest invention since peanut brittle.
- [in reply to a question about how he got the scar on his face] I have four stories about it, and it depends on which you like the best. One is a taxicab accident; another is that I slipped and fell on a broken bottle; then there is a jealous woman; and last is Old Heidelberg, where they used to stand toe to toe with a saber in each hand, and slash away. The first man to step back lost the contest, no matter how many times he'd sliced the other. Take your pick.
- I'm the world's worst disciplinarian. There's too much responsibility in being a leader! You have to have the dignity and authority of a leader, and that's all so heavy!
- I like any and all of my associations with music: writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.
- I am a bandleader and I am a composer.
- I don't believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the USA. you are referring to categories again.
- To me, bebop is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
- If I'm the Duke, man, Peggy Lee is Queen.
- New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillacs, and beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.
- I'm not sure what the word jazz means; musicians seldom use the word. If it means anything, it is freedom of expression, and meant the same thing to musicians 50 years ago.
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