Sourced

• On jazz: "Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa."
  • Source: http://www.worldjazzscene.com/quotes.html

• On the eventual death of racism: “What ever truth drops on it eventually grinds to a powder.”
  • Source KABC-TV interview -1983

• On a live performance: "If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes, take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball. So we want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing."
  • Source At the Jazz Corner of the World, Blue Note, 1959

• "...so go on and play, and if you make a mistake, make it loud so you won't make it next time."
  • Source "A Night in Tunisia"