I think the greatest sound in the world is the human voice.

I'm not messing around with nobody's woman. If I want a woman I go get her - you know what I mean?

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.

It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

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.

When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they're still here and passing it on to others.

I was minding my own business when something says to me, "you ought to blow trumpet." I have just been trying ever since.