Nobody was playing the soprano saxophone and certainly nobody was trying to do anything with it. So I was all alone. I didn't know that at first.

If you're trying to invent something new, you're going to reach a lot of discouraging points, and most people give up.

Make the drummer sound good.

Play difficult and interesting things. If you play boring things, you risk losing your appetite. Saxophone can be tedious with too much of the same.

Jazz is people's music, a collectivity.

I've been working on the soprano saxophone for 40 years, and the possibilities are astounding. It's up to you, the only limit is the imagination.

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.