Always look ahead, but never look back.

You can't eat a winner's plaque.

Lionel [Richie] said, "Yeah, I learned chords and stuff playin' against your albums."

He sounded to me like he's supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no one asked him a question.

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.

You have to be born with it. You can't even buy it. If you could buy it, they'd have it at the next Newport Festival.

White folks always think that you have to have a label on everything - you know what I mean?