I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He's still a nice young man, only confused.

It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.

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.

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.

If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that determines if it's good or bad.

You ever hear Buddy Miles play the drums? You know, he doesn't vary the tempo at all.

That's the way you judge a car, man, [good or bad], when you start it up. It's just the same thing. I mean, I drive a Ferrari - not to be cute, but because I dig it. I'd rather drive a ten-year-old Ferrari than one of them new things-they don't go.