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

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

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.

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

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

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

I never consciously tried to conceive of what my sound should be...I never tried to imitate anybody, but when you love somebody's music, you're influenced...I really don't know how I developed my sound, but it comes from a combination of my musical conception and no doubt the basic shape of the oral cavity.