I believe that a hundred years from now, when people look back at the 20th century, they will look at Miles, Bird, Clifford Brown, Ella and Dizzy, among elders as our Mozarts, our Chopins, our Bachs and Beethovens.

I found this out over the years, that racism is a thinly veiled disguise over economics and money. It really is.

Few rappers realize the genre sprang from West African griots through Delta slave songs to jazz poetry and the comedic trash talk of 'the dozens.'

If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture.

I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying “Ain’t that the truth

I hope that on my tombstone it says 'Born 1933, died 2043.' I hope that's my legacy.

I live on the Internet.

After I learned the piano, I went on to learn percussion, the tuba, b-flat baritone, French horn, trombone, trumpet, most of the instruments in the orchestra. Trumpet was my instrument.

I met Ray Charles at 14, and he was 16. But he was like a hundred years older than me.

I think the attraction of 'American Idol' is about the basic human nature attitude that is, 'We can put you up there. But we can take you down.'

Melody is king, and don't you ever forget it. Lyrics appear to be out front, but they're not; they're just an accompanying factor. If they're good, you're really in good shape. Lyrics are written to be rewritten.

I was rapping in 1939. It's old. The roots are complex. And kids don't know.

When you work with Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, and you tell them to jump without a net, you better know what you're talking about. Thank God I was ready for it.

Everybody, no matter what vocation they're looking at, should add music as an essential to their curriculum. Music can be a very important part of your soul and your growth as a human being. It's so powerful.

Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores.

Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring.

I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.

My son is a hip-hop producer.

China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.

I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it.

I was the most subtle person in the world.

My earliest memories are being pinned to a fence with a switchblade.

I'd been in love before - I was always in love.

My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door.

I don't remember feeling love.

All guys get into music because they love music and they also want to get the girls.

I never felt like I had a mother.

A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top of that, you're really in great shape!

I'm a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.

I was married for 36 years but now I'm free.

I've met every freak in the business.

I'm not a psychiatrist.

I'm just a musician and a record producer.

The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.

When I was 14, I was a passenger in a terrible accident.

When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out.

We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again.

We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old.

It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play.

It slaps your dignity just right. I loved the idea of these proud, dignified black men, and I saw the older ones wounded, and it wounded me ten times as much because I couldn't stand seeing them hurt like this.

If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle.

I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe.

I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.

I have all the tools and gadgets. I tell my son, who's a producer, 'You never work for the machine; the machine works for you.'

I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.

You make your mistakes to learn how to get to the good stuff.

Everybody has their idiosyncrasies.

It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do.

Cherish your mistakes, and you won't keep making them over and over again. It's the same with heartbreaks and girls and everything else. Cherish them, and they'll put some wealth in you.