“Charlie Christian showed me a lot, and was a great help, but even then, I realised that if I was going to make it, it was no use copying Charlie”

When I joined the trio, it was as if I was capable of driving a sports car at 60, but Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson just kept pressing the pedal down, and I was trying to control the car at 80!

Playing scales is like a boxer skipping rope or punching a bag. It’s not the thing in itself; it’s preparatory to the activity

I’m not interested in a marketable product: I’m interested in what I know from my life experience to be standards of excellence

Charlie Christians’ contributions to the electric guitar are as big as Thomas Edisons’ contributions to the world.

he signed his work .. you could always tell when it was Herb Ellis playing

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.

Never too old, never too bad, never too late, never too sick to start from scratch once again.

There is nothing in the world of art like the songs mother used to sing.

By your own soul, learn to live. If some men force you, take no heed. If some men hate you, have no care. Sing your song, dream your dreams Hope your hopes, and pray your prayers.

A good company delivers excellent products and services, and a great company does all that and strives to make the world a better place.

I just plug in and let go.

You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea.

I don’t think children’s inner feelings have changed. They still want a mother and father in the very same house; they want places to play.