The way you change and help music is by tryin' to invent new ways to play

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.

If you understood everything I say, you'd be me!

I did Bronislaw Kaper's tune. He wrote "On Green Dolphin Street." I mean, I did all those ballads, all them ballads from South America. All those tunes - the guitar concerto on Sketches Of Spain. All those are Spanish melodies. Some of them we made up ourselves.

I'm not messing around with nobody's woman. If I want a woman I go get her - you know what I mean?

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

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