If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station?

We all played bad before we played good.

The way to learn the language is to rip off other players. As Benny Golson told me, "We all start off sounding like other cats. And gradually, a lick here or there,we start to sound like ourselves. But it takes a long time to do so..." That'swhat he told me, and it worked for me.

I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would have never written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker never would have played anything but swing music. There comes a point at which you have to stand up and say, this is what I have to do.

If I were like a lot of other people, then it wouldn't be fun; but since I'm like me, it's okay.

You hear it in your brain. Whatever makes sense. Some songs work well as quartet songs, sometimes they don't.

The biggest problem with American music right now, is that kids don't listen. They come by it honestly, Americans don't listen anyway. When people go to concerts, they say I'm going to see... not, I'm going to hear.