I do fear death. But what I actually fear is not dying. I mean, true, it will be sad. But I know that there is a better place waiting for me.
. . . I have great hopes for the possibility of a dynamic universalism that respects all our people.
Is jazz a rhythm, or is it a vibration?
Everybody in America is angry about something.
I have learned through time that not everyone is interested in the kinds of things that fascinate me.
For the most basic assumption that dictated my early attempts to respond to creative music commentary was the mistaken belief that western journalists had some fundamental understanding of black creativity—or even western creativity—but this assumption was seriously in error.
I had never thought that I would be involved in narrative structures. As a young guy, I was more interested in abstract modeling. But as I got older, I began to see that there was no reason to limit myself to any intellectual or conceptual postulate, when in fact I'm a professional student of music.
Beware! The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe.
Nobody gets beyond a petroleum economy. Not while there's petroleum there.
fanaticism is the only way to put an end to the doubts that constantly trouble the human soul.
The most scared I'd ever been was the first time I sang at a rugby match, Australia versus New Zealand, in front of one hundred thousand people. I had a panic attack the night before because people have been booed off and never worked again. . . just singing one song, the national anthem.