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

The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.

There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. they are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence.

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.

When I got this saxophone, it became a religion. There wasn't TV, there wasn't much money, and there was just a real dedication.... I never thought of it as an art. It was just work that I loved. Not just work, but work that I loved. I loved it so much, I would play it if nobody listened to it. Any jazz musician, if there's nobody around to listen, would play just for the sheer joy of improvising music.

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

I appreciate men like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins very much.