"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."

"I never thought I'd live to see the day when a black man could walk into a white restaurant and eat."

"I don't play to the gallery. I play for myself, and if the gallery likes it, that's fine."

"I don't sing. I just make noises."

"Seems to me that the only thing that matters is that we like it, and we do. We like to blow, and we like to swing. And we like to make people happy."