John Lennon

And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God… They’ll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.

I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.

Music gives us a lot of things and it only wants one thing back… your attention.

When the label came to me to say, ‘would you like to do another record,’ I said, ‘Well I got these sixteen songs sitting here, so let’s do it.’ And that was pretty much it… I never stopped writing, it’s just the way that the business is now; you just try to find a different model.

Every time I see a musician – it doesn’t matter what age – that inspires me, there’s always a secret little wish that maybe we’ll play together, because that’s how I learn and grow and so forth, you know. But hopefully there’s a lot more.

Music should always be an adventure.

If you’ve only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

For most dates I was paid the sum of $1 per hr and they always tipped me at the end of the night.

What I learned the most from Prince was putting art first, being creatively ambitious, and putting creativity at the forefront of what I do.

Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life.

Jazz is a feeling more than anything else.

Players are coming from other backgrounds: rock, folk, ethnic music. It’s changing Jazz for the better.

Sometimes it’s to your advantage for people to think you’re crazy.

When Bird came on the scene, it was shocking as in the Bible: everything was dark and then there was light.

To play piano is a significant part of my life, my existence. It fulfills a very physical and spiritual need for me.