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

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.

Music is the framework around the silence.

We don't play to be seen. I'm addicted to music, not audiences.

I think every Negro over fifty should get a medal for putting up with all that crap.

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.

That's the way women do. The frown. They want to give you the attitude to approach them back, by giving you a negative vibe.