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

My uncle and my grandfather both worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

I don't think I went a year or so without a record between 1959 and 1979, sometimes two.

Sometimes you have to forget your principles and do what’s right.

You can't be afraid of failure and you can't be afraid of success, because either one gets in the way of your work.

I'm a very, very stubborn man.

If you look at music, you see theme, variation, you see symmetry, asymmetry, you see structure, and these are related to skills in the real world.