Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn't have a choice.

I've done some dastardly things but what can I do except make amends and apologize?

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.

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

I practiced saxophone eight hours a day for the first two years I played.