Many people do think it's naive to improvise in front of paying customers. I'm not saying one way is better than another.

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

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.

I just completed a tour in Europe. I played every night. This requires traveling some days for six hours in a van or a train or a car. After six weeks of that, I checked into the hotel and just fell apart.

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.

I always felt as a horn player, a jam session wasn't satisfying enough for me. I should have been a rhythm section player, actually.

Out of Coltrane's whole history, there are things which I think are great from all the periods.