I learn something new every day.

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

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

I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be...I never tried to imitate anybody, but when you love somebody's music, you're influenced...I really don't know how I developed my sound, but it comes from a combination of my musical conception and no doubt the basic shape of the oral cavity.

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.

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.

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