Successful people do ordinary things with extraordinary consistency, commitment and focus.

Particularly, in my situation, I needed a way out of where I was. So music was that.

I had a great year with Bob Mintzer [at Laguardia School of Arts]. Bob is great. We could have just brought the clarinet or dealt with classical stuff, or brought the flute or just dealt with comp and arranging... what a great teacher.

[Charles McPherson] was kind enough to go to a record gig of mine where we recorded a song of his.

Only through service and sacrifice can you become great.

My mother was a singer, and I never heard her sing a note in my life.

A man goes to the village to visit the wise man and he says to the wise man, “I feel like there are two dogs inside me. One dog is this positive, loving, kind, and gentle dog and then I have this angry, mean-spirited, and negative dog and they fight all the time. I don't know which is going to win.” The wise man thinks for a moment and he says, “I know which is going to win. The one you feed the most, so feed the positive dog.