I feel that L.A. has not always been my strongest base for support. That can be for various reasons.

I think we are in the midst of this period where we are committing this suicide on the planet and everybody is just using up all of our natural resources like a bunch of insane people. That's what I worry about more than I worry about jazz.

I have always been a person who is concerned with the dignity of jazz music and the way jazz musicians have been treated and are treated, and the fact that the music has not been given the kind of due that it deserves.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music. That was his reason for being alive. Nothing else mattered except music, really.

There have been many great musicians that, Clifford Brown is one great example, I mean he died very early, 25.

I feel that I have an obligation to jazz and also to myself to play as good as I can play.