Allen Toussaint Quotations

The mother-in-laws themselves weren't natural jokes but most comedians used to use that.

As an early child, I tried to play every kind of music that I heard. I thought everyone was doing that.

To travel and to get around different places, especially in station wagons, you could really see America.

Whenever I wrote songs - particularly back then - it would always be for a particular artist.

When you're playing live, those people who you're trying to please and reach, they're right there giving you feedback. And you don't get that feedback in the studio.

I never planned on being a live performer. My whole forte was about being in the studio, producing, playing the piano on recording sessions. I was all about the studio.

To play with a band all of the time, just about nightly, was good for me because I wrote lots of arrangements and I got a lot of my transposition and chords ironed out.

As a young child, I thought that all pianists played everything. I mean, I thought anything on piano - any piano music, all pianists played it.

To get to New Orleans you don't pass through anywhere else. That geographical location, being aloof, lets it hold onto the ritual of its own pace more than other places that have to keep up with the progress.

Dr. John is phenomenal. Dr. John is a heavyweight and one of the nicest guys in the world -- unhurried, and he plays very unhurried. His life is that way. And as for being an ambassador for New Orleans sound and New Orleans music, he's doing it to the bone.