Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker's next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?

Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don't care what you play anyway.

Whatever coast he's on, a man should be himself. I don't write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus.

They're singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

I'm too busy playing. When I'm playing I don't pay attention to who's listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don't listen to one instrument; you listen to music.

Since the white man says he came from the evolution of animals, well, maybe the black man didn't. The white man has made so many errors in the handling of people that maybe he did come from a gorilla or a fish and crawl up on the sand and then into the trees. Of course, evolution doesn't take God into consideration. I don't think people learned to do all the things they do through evolution.

My music is evidence of my souls will to live.