I play a percussion instrument, not a musical saw; it needs no amplification. Where it's needed, they put a microphone in front of the bass drum. But, I don't think it's necessary to play that way every night.

I think it's a fallacy that the harder you practice the better you get.

There were so many individual styles thirty or forty years ago.

You only get better by playing.

I can think of a lot better things to do with my hands than to cut them up on the rim of a drum.

And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real players. They had an influence on everybody, not just drummers.

Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity. I don't think I ever had to listen to anyone else to learn how to play drums. I wish I could say that for about ten thousand other drummers.