If I hear a song like "Time After Time." I'm sittin' there lookin' at video and Cindy Lauper comes on singin' this song. I said, "God damnnnnn!"

The reason [drummers] call things "unison", and they sound unison, is because you actually play two different tempos . . . like you're a little sharp, or a little flat; it's so slight that they call it "unison", but it's not unison.

The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.

If you're not nervous then you're not paying attention.

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

You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.

If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can't be trusted.