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.

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.

Artt Frank is my all-time favorite drummer. He always seems to know where I'm going.

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

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

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it's a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don't listen.

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?