I also met, early on Ella Fitzgerald. Her songbooks are some of the most amazing bodies of work.
I wasn't a very academic kid, and music was the way for all that feeling and angst and sex and love and anger to be channelled.
For me, pointing and clicking my phone is absolutely fine. People say that isn't the art of photography but I don't agree.
Because the stuff that they feed kids now, they'll have a bunch of idiots in the next millennium as far as art and culture is concerned.
To me, art's highest purpose is to entertain, to enlighten, to inspire, to evoke emotion and to change an audience in some way, big or small.
I wanted to make a traditional record that had a lot of art and showed my vulnerable side and showed things I'm passionate about.
I think art is a consolation regardless of its content. It has the power to move and make you feel like you're not.
I don't think we live in those times when great art comes out of great adversity.
An artist cannot be responsible for what people make of their art. An audience loathe giving up preconceived images of an artist.
I've got the recording process down, and I can knock it out very quickly.
I'd rather have ten people who are mad for it than ten thousand who aren't.
Yeah, I still feel as if I have things to do really. I'm not ready to stop.
It's the same misconception I used to have. I meet people and think they're millionaires and they're not.
If a ballet dancer falls over, it's knowing how to get out looking clumsy that counts.
Why would heavy metal ever go away?
It's shameful what's happening in this country in terms of what we deny our children.
It's extremely important to have a loyal fan base and be receptive to them.
I think it's a sensible thing not to read your fan mail - not to take it too seriously.
Bud Powell's probably the biggest influence on my piano playing.
I can imagine an utter hatred for the jazz avant-garde.
The world of this is a load of crap. You get all these bloody people, so incredibly sycophantic.
