I played in rhumba bands, mickey mouse bands; all kinds of bands.

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

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

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

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.