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" We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old. "

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" Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores. "

" Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.' "

" We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too. "

Black And White

" I'm not a psychiatrist. "

" I'm a tremendous believer and supporter in hip-hop and rap. "

" My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door. "

" Bebop and hip-hop, in so many ways, they're connected. A lot of rappers remind me so much of bebop guys in terms of improvisation, beats and rhymes. My dream is to see hip-hop incorporated in education. You've got the youth of the world in the palm of your hand. "

" I like all music. The only music I don't like is bad music. "

" I was married for 36 years but now I'm free. "

" I didn't understand key signatures or anything, you know. I'd say silly things at the top of a trumpet part like, 'Note, when you play B naturals, make the B naturals a half step lower because they sound funny if they're B naturals.' And some guy said: 'Idiot, just put a flat on the third line and it's a key signature, you know?' "

" I got in the school band and the school choir. It all hit me like a ton of bricks, everything just came out. I played percussion for a while, and stayed after school forever just tinkering around with different things, the clarinets and the violins. "

" When I was 13, I started working in a nightclub with Ray Charles. That's the greatest school in the world, the school of the streets. Ray taught me how to read in Braille. He was only two years older than me, but it was like he was 100 years older. "

" I'm Pisces with Leo rising. The Pisces part is the dreamer. The Leo says, 'Let's execute.' "

" I'm just a musician and a record producer. "

" I'm probably the only one in the world you can name that's worked with Billie Holiday, Louie Armstrong, Ella, Duke, Miles, Dizzy, Ray Charles, Aretha, Michael Jackson, rappers. 'Fly Me to the Moon' was played on the moon by Buzz Aldrin. Sinatra. Paul Simon. Tony Bennett. I'm the only one. "

" I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe. "

" My earliest memories are being pinned to a fence with a switchblade. "

" If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture. "

" Playing the game, and unfortunately, playing the gangster game is very profitable. "

" A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top of that, you're really in great shape! "

" To me it's no accident that all the symphony orchestras around the world tune up to the note A. And A is 440 cycles, except in Germany where it's 444. But the universe is 450 cycles. So what I'm trying to say is, I think it's God's voice, melody especially. Counterpoint, retrograde inversion, harmony... that's the science and the craft. "

" Young people should travel, and they don't. You can't know if you don't go. "

" I travel like a maniac. I travel more than anyone I know. I love learning the languages. "

" I don't remember feeling love. "

" Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important. "

" China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right. "

" My father was a carpenter, a very good carpenter. He also worked for the Jones boys. They were not family members, we weren't related at all. They started the policy racket in Chicago, and they had the five and dime store. "

" When I was 14, I was a passenger in a terrible accident. "

" I was raised in Chicago and I guess that was one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters of all colors. That was the Detroit of the gangster world. The car industry was thugs. "

" I'd been in love before - I was always in love. "