When I'm alcohol-free now and even to see the world around me, I appreciate it, but I never truly enjoy too much of it maybe because I feel like I'm a working musician. There are some joyous moments, but I will not think a joyous moment.

I never have any trouble playing anything I can think of. The trouble is in thinking of what to play.

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.

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

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

Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn't have a choice.

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