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.

There are a lot of great players... a lot of great players around, but Louie Bellson is really something special.

I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.

How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don't you ask him? And besides, maybe we'd all like to be like Miles, and just haven't got the guts.

Many critics always saw and heard that my style comes from Roy Eldridge, which is true. But for many things, not only how to play the trumpet but the way to choose the notes, how to play them and how to phrase all of them, I took that from Sweets [Edison]. He really brought something new to the trumpet.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your magnificent indifference.

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.