The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it's still a melody.

I learn something new every day.

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.

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

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

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

You don't rehearse jazz to death to get the camera angles.