"My mother didn't want me to grow up in North Carolina" -- "What is jazz? New York, man!" -- "I always did want to play piano" -- "We played and she healed" -- "Why can't you play music like the Ink Spots?" -- They weren't giving any lectures" -- "Since you went away I missed you" -- "I'm trying to see if it's a hit" -- "Dizzy and Bird did nothing for me musically" -- "The George Washington of Bebop" -- "It's a drag to be in jail" -- "The 'un' years" -- "France libre!" -- "Sometimes I play things I never heard myself" -- "The Greta Garbo of jazz" -- "As long as I can make a living" -- "People have tried to put me off as being crazy" -- "My time for fame will come" -- "The police just mess with you... for nothing" -- "Make sure them tempos are right" -- "Hell, I did that twenty-five years ago" -- "Bebopens oversteprast" -- "Maybe I'm a major influence" -- "Everything begins here and everything ends here" -- "That's a drag picture they're paintin' of me" -- "Sometimes I don't feel like talking" -- "Let someone else create something new!" -- "What do I have to do? Play myself to death?" -- "I am very seriously ill!" -- Postlude -- Appendix A: A technical note on Monk's music -- Appendix B: Records and tapes in Thelonious Monk's personal collection.