Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It's not an occupation or profession, it's a compulsion.

There is no art when one does something without intention.

The Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern' art. What is more African than a Picasso?

There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!

There are two kinds of worries - those you can do something about and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter.

New music? Hell, there's been no new music since Stravinsky.