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

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.

My job is to write songs that have emotional meaning to me.

Humans are imperfect. That's one of the reasons that classical and jazz are in trouble. We're on the quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

If youre going to use standards as criteria for signing musicians, you can sign thousands. If youre going to use some sort of conceptual interpretation thats based on the tradition of those standards, but is trying to move away from it, youre down to about 10 people or so.

There is not a sentence in the world that could respectfully do justice to the life and music of Jerry Garcia.

We have something that is unique. We have our craft. We have our art. We have our desire.