I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

I like the music. I love it & live it in fact. But for me the business part of music just plain stinks.

The good old days are neither better nor worse than the ones we're living through right now.

I can't understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out & look at it?

The distance between me and Benny [Goodman], was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging.

I wanted to resign from the planet, not just music. It stopped being fun with success. Money got in the way. Everybody got greedy, including me. Fear set in. I got miserable when I became a commodity.

When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.'