If you had to call it "unison", it ain't unison. It ain't the same as somebody else. If you can hear that it's unison, and you have to name it something other than "unison", it ain't unison, you know what I mean? It's two guys playin', but one guy is playin' slightly out of tune, one is playin' slightly off meter.

I gave the album [You're Under Arrest] to Quincy Jones and he loved "D Train". We couldn't call it "D Train"; it's called "MDI/Something's On Your Mind/MD2". That's on the album.

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

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.

Some day I'm gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.

I've used [drum machine] because I have to have the perfect tempo.

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.