Lipton’s Journal/December 17, 1954/50

There is a lesson for me in the above. In a way I know more about jazz now after a month or two than aficionados can know in life-time. But that is not because I am exceptional, but because occasionally I have the gift of trusting my instincts and learning about something which interests me. So if I am interested, I can learn an enormous amount in a week or two weeks. If I am not interested I can spend years and never really learn the basic jargon. I have to heed what I have always been frightened of: my lack of caution. That is my special quality—I usually refuse to consider the consequences—and so I continue to learn. Caution is the high priest of society.