"Negro music and culture are intrinsically improvisational, existential. Nothing is sacred. After a decade, a musical idea, no matter how innovative, is threatened"

"Music is my religion"

"Culture is a way of coping with the world by defining it in detail"

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

"My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary"

"We have our own history, our own language, our own culture. But our destiny is also tied up with the destinies of other people - history has made us all South Africans"

"Of course as children, we all, in all cultures and societies, learn behavior from observation, imitation, and encouragement of various kinds. So by the suggestion made, we all 'pretend' most of the time"

"Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future"

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

"Music is the universal language of mankind"

"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff"