He was the only musician who ever lived, who can't be replaced by someone.

There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.

You can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played.

Making money ain't nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat …

Such is the idiosyncratic nature of her work that she could probably disappear for a half-century and still sustain her own unique position in the pop firmamen…

'I've changed music four or five times. What have you done of any importance other than be white?'

My chief virtue (or if you like, defect) has been a tireless lifelong search for an original, individual musical idiom. I detest imitation, I detest hackneyed …