I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it - like, they say "rock". Because the white singers can't sound like James Brown, they call him "soul". They've been doing that for years. That's the prejudice crap.

I said to [Lionel] Richie, "Man, my wife says you must really respect women because you write such beautiful love songs."

If somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I'd spend it choking a white man. I'd do it nice and slow.

Like Ron Lorman's always sayin', "Na-na-na-na-na," you know what I mean? I don't need that in the studio.

It takes you years to learn how to play like yourself.

It's a different ballgame now, so that lets [teo] Macero out. He's always complainin', always sick.

Bebop didn't have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn't even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging — but they weren't sweet.