Some of the guys I played with .. didn't go around learning more about their instruments from an intellectual point of view. All they wanted was to play hot jazz, and the instrument was just a means. I'd imagine that a lot of them criticized me-said my technique was too good. Something like that. But I've always wanted to know what made music. How you do it, and why it sounds good. I always practiced, worked like hell.

After you’ve done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time.

Creativity grows out of two things: curiosity & imagination.

When I first arrived (in New York), it seemed to me the most terrifying city in the world... all those big buildings. I remember walking on Broadway, looking up at this huge, mountainous place-and being so lonely. But things started to clear up when I met a few people on the street whom I'd met before-all of a sudden there got to be a certain familiarity about the place, and the terror kind of evaporated. There was a lot of playing going on, and the New Yorkers, of course, were a completely different crowd from what I'd known.

If you want to do something, you do it anyway, and handle the obstacles as they come.

If I have something I want to do, I make a business of doing it.

Sometimes when you start losing detail, whether it's in music or in life, something as small as failing to be polite, you start to lose substance.