My life is music, and in some vague, mysterious and subconscious way, I have always been driven by a taut inner spring which has propelled me to almost compulsively reach for perfection in music, often - in fact, mostly - at the expense of everything else in my life.

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.

I came from an era when we didn't use electronic instruments. The bass wasn't even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.

It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It’s a wonderful thing to speak extemporaneously, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of. But musically I love to talk just off the top of my head. And that’s what jazz music is all about.

I never have any trouble playing anything I can think of. The trouble is in thinking of what to play.

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won't come out.

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