Just because I'm playing jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me, the way I feel, through jazz, or whatever.

Let my children have music! Let them hear live music.

In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am.

Thelonius Monk went over to Bird and Bud Powell and said, 'I told you guys to act crazy, but I didn't tell you to fall in love with the act. You're really crazy now.'

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.

Making the complicated simple is true creativity.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.