Names and theoretical things don't occur to me. If they do, I'm not doing my real playing mode.

Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That's why I wanted the clarinet.

Bernstein grew up in my building in New York. He's a very, very fine player. When he was a kid, he came by to find out what was going on in the world of jazz.

You just keep playing. If someone special comes along and organizes it in a new way, then you'll have another approach and everybody will jump on it to try to learn.

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

We all learn from each other, and I never really hung out with guys in that way, so I missed out.

After playing now for 60 years, it's still very challenging for me to play a simple melody and have it clean and touch the reed at the proper time in the proper way.