I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians a family I hoped I could belong to one day.

I sat in at every club in New York City jamming with musicians because it felt right - and because it felt right and we were having fun - the people dancing and sipping their drinks in the clubs felt it too and it made them smile.

I love music and musicians. And seeing great artists dropped from labels was really frustrating and sad to me.

I talked to ex-wives of musicians of the '70s for research. They're the funniest people in the world yet there is this sad beautiful thing in their eyes that says they've seen more than they could ever possibly tell you.

I feel quite sad for the young musicians coming up because they may never get to pay their rent properly. It doesn't matter what the genre nowadays it's so much harder than it ever was.

At the risk of sounding hopelessly romantic love is the key element. I really love to play with different musicians who come from different cultural backgrounds.

I think Bach is equally a romantic composer because he laid the seeds harmonically for people like Chopin and the great Romantics Brahms so it's difficult to you know all this like labelling and putting - I think Bach is attractive to musicians because he supersedes the labels.

If we perform the romantic repertoire we need more musicians.

Madonna is a pro. I don't like her and have no respect for her but- I don't think she should be called a musician or a dancer or whatever you know but I do have well I do have respect for her ability to completely manipulate the media and have them work for her.

My father used to tell me about how musicians don't have respect from people and he was afraid about my future.

I just play the music that I love with musicians that I respect and fortunately I'm in a position where people are willing to play with me and perhaps I can do something to help them.

I still don't understand the music industry that much. Everything I learned was from hanging out with rock musicians in studios. I certainly have respect for those who make music their livelihood.

If we were all determined to play the first violin we should never have an ensemble. therefore respect every musician in his proper place.

I went through a phase when I was 13 where I would only fall in love with people over the age of 19 or 20. I never had a real relationship with any of these people but it was definitely the guy I wanted to hang out with and wanted to go on trips with. I would be like 'But Daddy he's a musician!'.

Favored Nations is a long-term commitment. Our hope is that those who are passionate about real musicianship will want to hear and own most of our albums. We will set out to attain the same direct relationship with our customers that we have with our artists.

Royalties are not how most writers or musicians make their living. Musicians by and large make a living with a relationship with an audience that is economically harnessed through performance and ticket sales.

But I would be naive not to recognize the number of musicians who tell me they have been influenced by me and sight me - as well as Alex and Neil - as a musician who has been a positive influence on their playing.

Publishing the lyric books poetry or comics of other musicians I know. That's the thing I really want to break into!

The musician - if he be a good one - finds his own perception prompted by the poet's perception and he translates the expression of that perception from the terms of poetry into the terms of music.

The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals but he is also the proudest. It is he who invented the sublime art of ruining poetry.

All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.

Comedy is like music and the way to make the best music is to have skilled musicians in your band.

We have been working with Habitat for Humanity and we have built eighty homes 80% of which are being lived in by New Orleans' musicians. It is called the Musicians' Village and at the center is the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music.

But recently I began to feel that maybe I wouldn't be able to do what I want to do and need to do with American musicians who are imprisoned behind these bars music's got these bars and measures you know.