Bebop didn't have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn't even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging — but they weren't sweet.

My future starts when I wake up every morning.

If you got up on the bandstand at Minton's and couldn't play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked.

I like Stan [Getz], because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can, which takes a lot of imagination.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

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

I've always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that's where great art and music happens.