I'm an exhibitionist, I was an exhibitionist as a kid.

There is an apprenticeship system in jazz. You teach the young ones. So even if the musicians weren't personally that likable, they felt an obligation to help the younger musicians.

If there was ever any truth to the trickle-down theory, the only evidence of it I've ever seen was in that period of 1960 to 1965. All of sudden they were handing out major label recording contracts like they were coming in Cracker Jack boxes.

I think I have more in common with a carpenter than you might think. We're putting things together.

I'm a very, very stubborn man.

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

One of my earliest memories... I knew three full verses of the Star Spangled Banner when I was seven or eight years old. And one of the nuns discovered this phenomenon and I was actually sent around from classroom to classroom to do the whole thing.