In music, silence is more important than sound.

Some of [drummers] drop time because they want to hear what you're doin'.

You want to know how I started playing trumpet? My father bought me one, and I studied the trumpet. And everybody I heard that I liked, I picked up things from.

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

If you're going to drop behind, you have to keep it there.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That's a little bit too much.

Sometimes [playing free] doesn't happen, because maybe a guy's wife'll come in, you know, and his ego will catch him. If everybody's completely just straight-without any old ladies over here, a fourth of whisky over there; if it's balanced right, it'll come off. It has to be. But when you get egos involved with playing free, you can't do it.