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.

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.

It takes a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all.

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.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn't play like Wynton.

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.

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?