I knew that if I kept the pressure on and didn't do anything stupid I would probably win.
. . . 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.
The truth is always an abyss. One must — as in a swimming pool — dare to dive from the quivering springboard of trivial everyday experience and sink into the depths, in order to later rise again — laughing and fighting for breath — to the now doubly illuminated surface of things.
The lesson that I learned is that you can't drop everything for one person. I've done that and that person has broken up with me, and I've had nothing.
The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet.
Nobody makes movies bad on purpose.