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.

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.

Hearing myself so much all the time, I don't think I sound that special all the time because it's me.

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

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

It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It’s a wonderful thing to speak extemporaneously, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of. But musically I love to talk just off the top of my head. And that’s what jazz music is all about.

I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be.