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

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.

Drummers - sometimes they play and they listen. And that little listen takes a speck away from the right tempo.

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.

What's swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don't have to ask anybody if that's good music or not. You can always feel it.

I'll play it first and figure out what it's called later.

If you got up on the bandstand at Minton's and couldn't play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked.