Your looks are laughable, unphotographable, yet you're my favorite work of art. Is your figure less than Greek, is your mouth a little weak? When you open it to speak, are you smart?

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

I like to play in the deep register. I was never a high-note specialist. My range goes from the bottom of the horn up to around C or D. High D is about it for me ... about two-and-a-half octaves, I think. But in these two-and-a-half octaves, I can say everything I have to say.

You don't know what love is, until you've learned the meaning of the blues, until you've loved a love you've had to lose.

It seems to me that most people are impressed with just three things: how fast you can play, how high you can play, and how loud you can play.

I'm definitely a romantic, I don't think life is really worth all the pain and effort and struggling if you don't have somebody that you love very much

People said I'd never make 35, then I'd never make 40, 45; now I'm almost 50, so Im beginning to think maybe they might be wrong.