Everybody Has Their Idiosyncrasies.

If I Don't Have A Mother, I'll Let Music Be My Mother.

Every Day You Must Be Able To Say, I Have To Get Up Because I'm Needed By Someone. As Long As You Have That, You're Healthy.

You Can Study Orchestration, You Can Study Harmony And Theory And Everything Else, But Melodies Come Straight From God.

Benny [carter] Opened The Eyes Of A Lot Of Producers And Studios, So That They Could Understand That You Could Go To Blacks For Other Things Outside Of Blues And Barbecue. He's A Total Musician. He Was The Pioneer, He Was The Foundation. He Made It Possible For That Doubt To Be Taken Away.

I Was Inspired By A Lot Of People When I Was Young, Every Band That Came Through Town, To The Theater, Or The Dance Hall. I Was At Every Dance, Every Night Club, Listened To Every Band That Came Through, Because In Those Days We Didn't Have Mtv, We Didn't Have Television.