If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice.

The value of jazz still has to be clarified. People involve themselves with its superficialities without digging for its soul.

I had a 10-year heroin habit and kicked that. Then I became an alcoholic. I drank two fifth's a day.

You know, when I'm playing, I think of myself in front of the Wailing Wall with a saxophone in my hands, and I'm davening, I'm really telling it to the Wall.

I appreciate men like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins very much.

When I'm alcohol-free now and even to see the world around me, I appreciate it, but I never truly enjoy too much of it maybe because I feel like I'm a working musician. There are some joyous moments, but I will not think a joyous moment.

A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other's ideas.