“I always listen to what I can leave out.”

Always listen for what you can leave out.

My father’s rich, my momma’s good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I’ve never suffered and don’t intend to suffer.

There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.

If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can’t be trusted.

I’m out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I’m still playing.

It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?

It takes a long time to sound like yourself.

I don’t pay no attention to what critics say about me, the good or the bad. The toughest critic I got is myself…and I’m too vain to play anything I think is bad.

Food makes my mind sluggish.

If you love them in the morning with their eyes full of crust; if you love them at night with their hair full of rollers, chances are, you’re in love.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.

Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery.

A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.

The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible.

There are many ways of supporting gender equality, from something as simple as paid sick leave and flexible work hours to attributing an economic value to all care-giving, and making that amount tax deductible.

Give me a love like winter branches, that will hold on even without any leaves.

Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.

All trees were once branches with fallen leaves.

Leave me like you mean it. My heart can’t keep waiting for you.

Let love cover me, just like the leaves on pavements like blankets in fall.