[Phil Wood] was a great artist, and he knew things. He could be mildly conversant in several languages.

Adversity is not a dead end but a detour to a better outcome than you can imagine!

Being positive won’t guarantee you’ll succeed. But being negative will guarantee you won’t.

Positivity is like a boomerang. The more we put it out there, the more it comes back to us.

When we hear music that we love that changes the world for us, we might as well at least aspire to something like that and aim high. You're probably not going to get beyond your dreams. So you might as well make them big.

We spent all day together [with Phil Wood] at that one particular lesson, which was maybe the third or fourth lesson, in from 11:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night. We often did a lot of varied things. It wasn't just about jazz language and the saxophone.

The light went on when I heard Phil [woods] play, and I went like, "That is why I'm playing the instrument." So I got very inspired, I started going to clubs through a friend's mom in the city, again, another person who just completely opened all these doors for me and it was amazing how kind she was.