A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.

I've come close to matching the feeling of that night in 1944 in music, when I first heard Diz and Bird, but I've never got there. . . . I'm always looking for it, listening and feeling for it, though, trying to always feel it in and through the music I play everyday.

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

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.

Dave [Holland] plays the way he wants to play. And it's usually what's needed. You know, Dave is such a deep thinker. You can't tell him too much, else it might spoil his spirit, you know.

We're not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got 'em, so they can keep 'em.

I don't care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.