"As Long as We Can Breathe, We Can Hope."

“One of the most obvious aspects of the music to people who know jazz is: How does it feel in the swing? These are things that are very subtle and that jazz musician appreciate in a particular way. I appreciate the way Tommy Flanagan swings, the way that Barry Harris swings, the great pulse that Hank Jones and Bill Evans have - end every one of them is different.”

“But everything of value about me is in my books.”

“You can only really yell at the players you trust.”

“Every addiction is an attempt to slay hope.”

“I'd like to be able to do complex math in my head. Any kind of adversity and I become very anxious, but if you're a robot, you have good equilibrium. I wish I was cooler under pressure, like a robot.”

“Her beauty might fascinate men, but it was difficult to charm them when she stood mute. . . .”

Source : Michelle Moran (2008). “The Heretic Queen: A Novel”, p.110, Broadway Books

“It is a river of ideas from which I fish out sounds that make my soul happy.”

“The tyranny that now exists is actual. That which may exist in the future is potential. If we are always to draw back from change with the thought that the change may be for the worse, then there is no hope at all of ever escaping injustice.”