I am interested in my music lasting only while I'm alive. I'm not writing for the future.

I miss playing with Miles. I did play with him a little while before he left the planet, but even at that time I longed to maybe do some things together.

You had many jazz musicians who lived in the United States, who had a hard time being accepted over here and had to play in sort of these inferior type dives.

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

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

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

I guess I'm fortunate that I'm still around and I emphasize 'I guess', because you never can tell what musicians would be playing had they been around as long as I have.