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.

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

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

Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.

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 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.

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.