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"When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out."
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"People who lost their mother should be careful about committing crime, because probably no one else is praying to save you."
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Personal Development
"My mother wanted me to be a concert pianist."
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Personal Development
"The doctor's name was Sylvia. I told her she'd have a problem with me because Sylvia was my mother's name."
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Personal Development
"A mother is the most important blessing of your life."
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Personal Development
"There's no doubt that becoming a mother was the greatest thing I'll ever do."
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Personal Development
"I loved my mother, she's a good girl."
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Personal Development
"Both my parents were doctors, and my mother had her surgery in the house. There were six children."
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Personal Development
"I couldn't even go to the bathroom alone. My mother or a social worker always went with me."
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Personal Development
"Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother."
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Personal Development
"Mothers don't want to pinch me or put me in their purse."
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"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."
Family
"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."
School
"I was inspired by a lot of people when I was young. Every band that came through town, to the theater, or the dance hall. I was at every dance, every night club, listened to every band that came through, because in those days we didn't have MTV, we didn't have television."
People
"Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they're 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know?"
Job
"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."
Heart
"It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play."
Music
"We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again."
Time
"If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle."
Experience
"It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do."
Trouble
"I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe."
Europe
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