It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

I wasn't so interested in being paid. I wanted to be heard. That's why I'm broke.

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

I'm having this conversation with you now. I'm talking, but I'm thinking, feeling, smelling, and moving. Yet I'm concentrating on what you're saying. So that means there's more things going on in the body than just the present thing that the person's got you doing.

Musicians tell me, if what I'm doing is right, they should never have gone to school.

I had a really good time in New Orleans, although I had some very tragic times in Baton Rouge. Some guys beat me up and threw my horn away. 'Cause I had a beard, then, and long hair like the Beatles.

If you decide you want to be treated good, and you treat someone else good, or you want to learn something, it's information. It's getting the right, good information.