"I still remember the first time I heard the word 'nigger'. I was seven years old. A white man called me that. I didn't know what it meant, but I knew it was bad."

"I just try to make my music as honest as I can."

"I don't dig that modern jazz stuff. I like to hear a melody."

"It's getting so bad, a colored man hasn't got any country."

"I don't need no fancy words to tell you what I feel. I just play my horn."