Don't do nothing halfway, else you find yourself dropping more than can be picked up.

At first it was just a misdemeanor, but then you lost the "mis-de" and you just got meaner and meaner.

When you're with another tea smoker it makes you feel a special kinship.

The Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in ... Guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy and there was lots of plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all. I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.

You either have it or you don't. You play your horn just like you sing a song or a hymn. If it's in your heart, you express yourself in the tune.

What we play is life.