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

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

I learn something new every day - to edit, to take out all the extraneous matter and stress form, logic, and content. I try to play beautiful music.

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

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

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

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.