My life has always been my music, it's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothing if you can't lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, 'cause what you're there for is to please the people.

My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.

You got to love to be able to play

Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for.

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.

All them weird chords which don't mean a thing...you got no melody to remember, and no beat to dance to

It's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't got any country.