Aesthetically, I love the whole history of the music.

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

I was also sitting in from the middle of senior year of high school at Sweet Basil, it was a great club in New York.

When [Charlie Parker] saw the young guys, especially the ones that were scuffling... "Did you eat today?" And if you hadn't eaten, he'd take you and buy you some lunch.

The secret to life and the greatest success strategy of all is to love all of it and fear none of it.

What I feel the most confident about as a teacher, whatever my strengths and weaknesses are. The fact that I got to be around those people, I feel like that I have something to offer because of that blessing. Being around them a little bit... I'm not them. I'm certainly not trying to compare myself to them. But in lieu of them being able to impart something, the fact that I had so many people like that that were kind to me and talked to me was invaluable.

I just lucked into a lot of good people man. In my life and through friends, and in the music, that really embraced me and took care of me. I'm a lucky guy.