“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”

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!

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

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

The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.

Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen, though… That’s the problem.

Beware of the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world.

One of the things I’ve learned is to be receptive of feedback.

Competitions are for horses, not artists.

Breath is the king of mind.

The transpersonal is more awe-inspiring, more exciting than the thing we confuse it for.

I feel no different than I felt at 99, 98 or 97. Just because you live a long time, you get all this attention. Just because you survived? Of course, I survived a lot.