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.

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

Benny Goodman plays the clarinet. I play music.

Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana, and will expire on cocaine.

There's such a cynicism about the phrase 'I laughed all the way to the bank.' It's as though money is what you're doing, rather than playing music. If you're playing a money game, why not get into banking?

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