"I still remember the first time I heard the word 'nigger'. I was seven years old. A white man called me that. I didn't know what it meant, but I knew it was bad."

"My whole life, my whole soul, my whole everything, I give to music. And I don't care what nobody says."

"I think I'm a jazz musician. I don't know what else I am."

"A lot of people think that 'What a Wonderful World' is a sad song. I don't think so. I think it's a happy song."

"Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them."