“At a time when it was very brave to do because Ataturk was cutting off the heads of the imams. And people thought that that was foolhardy of my father.”

Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.

The all-time greatest Atlantic group – The Drifters

There are still many great surviving talents: Stevie Winwood. Another great talent is Stevie Wonder.

The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.

The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame will provide a center where the lives and the artistry of the greatest jazz musicians will be celebrated, and where people will come to learn about jazz, something to which my brother devoted his lifes work.

A singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.

It is a great life, this life of music.

You know you have a multimillion-seller hit – and what you’re working on suddenly has magic.

The first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair

I came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn’t have the other $20,000.

People like Clyde McPhatter who came out of the black churches – like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin – were all church singers who became great pop singers because gospel singing is very close to the blues.

Ataturk saw where history was going. He really did in Turkey what we are all hoping somebody will do in [Islamic] countries where fundamentalists thrive, that they get somebody today that has the vision that Ataturk had in 1915.

My father believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.

I became a jazz fan quite early and never went off the path thereafter.

Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write – no matter how bad they are – get recorded.

My father was a very religious person. And he prayed five times a day. And he did that throughout his relationship with Ataturk.

Trust everyone, but always cut the cards.

The odds against there being a bomb on a plane are a million to one, and against two bombs a million times a million to one. Next time you fly, cut the odds and take a bomb.

The world is a diamond cut from our surprise.

The Photo Album is the weakest record. For the first time in our careers, we found ourselves with an economic incentive to be on the road and to be making albums.

Very rarely are we directing or cutting someone elses boards. We concept, direct, shoot, animate and edit almost everything that comes through here.

Isabell, she treads so lightly, floating in her gipsy dresses Even as her words cut deep,

Shaving is a way to start the workday by ritually not cutting your throat when you’ve the chance.

After the revolution, it might very well remain necessary to place people where they could not do harm to others. But the one under restraint should be cut off from the rest of society as little as possible.