Americans don't like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don't like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don't like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make 'em a lot of money.

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

Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.

Play what you know and then play above that

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

There are no wrong notes.

Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something about punching Monk out in front of his face - and I never did - then somebody should have just come and got me and taken me to the madhouse, because Monk could have just picked my little ass up and thrown me through a wall.