Being selfish to me means that you have to look out for yourself and you don't have to sacrifice.

But when I first got cancer, after the initial shock and the fear and paranoia and crying and all that goes with cancer - that word means to most people ultimate death - I decided to see what I could do to take that negative and use it in a positive way.

To most jazz critics I was basically Kenny G.

Being stubborn has helped, being selfish is not a bad thing.

My father's father came from Russia; my mother came from Romania.

As much as I think John Coltrane belongs on the list, I think without Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, both of whom defined improvising on the tenor sax, there would not have been the evolution of the craft by John Coltrane.

You don't have to live the blues to play the blues.