“It seems that in this country, you’re expected to be a specialist. People get used to you in a certain role in life, and they don’t like you to step out of it. In other countries, particularly the Latin countries, it doesn’t surprise anyone when a man is an attorney and a jazz musician, or a playwright and a painter. People in this country seem to find it hard to understand that a man can have a deep and abiding interest in one art and a lesser, but still real, interest in another.”
Gerry Mulligan, quoted in Gene Lees, “Gerry Mulligan—A Writer’s Credo,” Down Beat, January 17, 1963 (courtesy of Jazz Profiles)