I've had a life that has taken many interesting paths. I've learned a lot from mentors who were instrumental in shaping me, and I want to share what I've learned.

I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.

It's not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in. So, I'm concerned about peace. I'm concerned about - about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

Since time is a continuum, the moment is always different, so the music is always different.

Take whatever happens and try to make it work.

The Internet opens up a whole new range of possibilities in a wide range of areas.

You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.

I am not fundamentally a musician, I am fundamentally a human being.

The cool thing is that jazz is really a wonderful example of the great characteristics of Buddhism and great characteristics of the human spirit. Because in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we are creating in the moment. At our best, we're non-judgmental.

I just express myself in any way I feel is appropriate at the moment.

When the suggestion was made that I might consider doing music of Joni Mitchell, I thought it was a fantastic idea. Joni, I admire not only for her music but for her person, because she's a person that really stands out for what she believes in.

It's easy to get sidetracked with technology, and that is the danger, but ultimately you have to see what works with the music and what doesn't. In a lot of cases, less is more. In most cases, less is more.

Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept. He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.

Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

To my wife, I'm not Herbie Hancock the musician. I'm her husband. When I'm talking to a neighbor, I'm a neighbor. When I vote, I'm a citizen.

Most people define themselves by what they do - 'I'm a musician.' Then one day it occurred to me that I'm only a musician when I'm playing music - or writing music, or talking about music. I don't do that 24 hours a day. I'm also a father, a son, a husband, a citizen - I mean, when I go to vote, I'm not thinking of myself as 'a musician.'

I hope to use dialogue and culture as a means of bringing people of various cultures together, and using that as a way to resolve conflict.

You make different colors by combining those colors that already exist.

World peace is no longer some pie-in-the-sky thing, because no single person or country is going to solve it on their own.

I like to present something that the people haven't seen or haven't heard before. Otherwise they might as well just stay home and play the record.

I think people have learned that Herbie Hancock can be defined as someone that you won't be able to figure out what he's going to do next. The sky is the limit as far as I'm concerned.

I've always been interested in science. I used to take watches apart and clocks apart, and there's little screws, and a little this and that, and I found out if I dropped one of them, that thing ain't gonna work.