Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.
I save all the energy until I get on the stage and then I have a burst of energy and look like I've been jamming all day long. But other than that, I'm a granddad, great granddad.
I'm a keen musician. Me and my mates have a great times jamming and recording stuff. We have a great band behind us and have turned my nursery-rhyme songs into quite credible pieces of music.
It is impossible to remain indifferent to Japanese culture. It is a different civilisation where all you have learnt must be forgotten. It is a great intellectual challenge and a gorgeous sensual experience.
I haven't a great jazz band, and I don't want one.
People think jazz music is all standards and the Great American Songbook. But it's really about the sensibility, the feel you bring to the music.
That's what I tell my students at California Institute of the Arts where I taught for 27 years. I taught them if you strive to be a good person, maybe you might become a great jazz musician.
My great inspiration has always been Studs Terkel, who is a wonderful American oral historian. He was a radio DJ at first, interviewed a lot of jazz musicians, and at some point started to interview Americans about work.
People like to compartmentalise music, especially African-American music, but it's really one thing. One very wide thing. I mean, it's like all those great records by Marvin Gaye and James Brown back in the day - there are tonnes of jazz musicians playing on them.
I have seen great jazz musicians die obscure and drinking themselves to death and not really being able to get any work and working in small, funky jazz clubs.
I was really learning my craft as a jazz singer and working with some great players and all, really growing and feeling my wings.
Great leaders, like Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos, also focused on the long term.
I'm so impressed by Jennifer Lawrence and Carey Mulligan. They have this exquisite taste. They are very gifted in their ability to make great choices.
There are tons of actors and actresses I admire. But I really admire Jennifer Lawrence because she has won awards and made so many great movies, and she still seems so down-to-earth and funny.
Jeremy Lamb is a great dancer.
If I'd had a great level of success early on, who knows how I would have responded. I might have been a complete jerk.
I tell you what: I bet Jerry Jones would not trade places with a 75-year black man in Chicago. I bet Joel Klatt would not trade places with a 30-year old black guy from Chicago or Watts. I bet he wouldn't do that. You know why? It's great to know that I'm white and a male in America.
I wish I could be as thin as Jessica Simpson. I think she looks gorgeous! I have had Jessica on my show several times, and I can tell you that girl is genuine and funny with a great self-deprecating sense of humor.
Listen closely as those around you speak; great truths are revealed in jest.
A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.
