I don't wanna talk about Teo [Macero]. He's a helluva musician, a brilliant musician, but he's just not for me, that's all. I can elaborate on it, but I don't want to do that.

I always listen to what I can leave out.

Music is an addiction.

I don't hold it against Dizzy [Gillespie], you know, but if a guy wants to play a certain way, you work towards that. If he stops - he's full of crap, you know. I mean, I wouldn't do it, for no money, or for no place in the white man's world. Not just to make money, because then you don't have anything. You don't have as much money as whoever you're trying to ape; that's making money by being commercial. Then you don't have anything to give the world; so you're not important. You might as well be dead.

I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician.

When the band plays fast, you play slow; when the band plays slow, you play fast.

We're not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got 'em, so they can keep 'em.