We loved one another, man. I mean all those stories about the rift ... there was no question of a rift between Charlie Parker and me.

There have been two great revelations in my life: The first was bepop, the second was homeopathy.

Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.

The idea of life is to give and receive.

Everyone wants to put people on, I think. And get away with it! That's the thing: put people on and get away with it! That's a science in itself.

As a musician you have to keep one foot back in the past and have one foot forward into the future.

They're not particular whether you're playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.