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.

Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.

I think every Negro over fifty should get a medal for putting up with all that crap.

My ego only needs a good rhythm section

First you imitate, then you innovate.

Play what you know and then play above that

I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each other, were true because Bach had also composed that way.