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

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

If I do a piece in my living room, if I practice it - and I have the tapes to prove this - it's not going to be as good as doing the same piece in front of an audience.

By the mid-70s, I wanted to get out of the business. I was tired anyway.

Honesty is the cruelest game of all, because not only can you hurt someone - and hurt them to the bone - you can feel self-righteous about it at the same time.

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

And then adds with a laugh, 'but in retrospect I think he may have been more sophisticated than we were.'