I didn’t really have an act per se – a theatrical performance, as opposed to just: here I am, folks, and you’re all supposed to be dead quiet while I sing eight or nine songs, then get off the stage.

How many radio shows I did is lost to memory now; it’s in the hundreds – maybe even close to being in the thousands – for the span of years from the time I was eight till I was about fifteen.

Right now, my career is in three directions: as a performer, as an arranger, as an author – and I don’t give any one of them true precedent, or true top marks, as opposed to the other two.

I hadn’t been a recording artist all that long when albums came on the scene, and I was one of the first singers to point the way to how varied an album’s contents could be.

I was a singer professionally when I was four years old, and I did not really begin to play any instrument – the first one, of course, was drums – till I was about nine years old.

Buddy Rich is one of a kind; he’s a genius, and that’s all there is to it.

It may sound a bit like an army barracks, but the truth of the matter is: there must be some time laid aside for arranging, time for working on either a book or an article – I’ve written two articles in the last four months for the New York Times book review section.

I would be a liar if I said it wouldn’t be lovely and soothing – that’s the word – to have a hit single or a hit album.

As regards my feelings about drummers – there’s Buddy Rich, and then there’s everybody else.

I’m going to continue to talk to the people, because I do believe that if they get to know you and what you are as a human being, they can more appreciate what you are as a performer.