Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.

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

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

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

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

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.