I wanted to be a pianist but it just wasn't my thing. I guess I wanted to stand up rather than sit down.

If you have music you want to play that no one asks you to play, you have to go out and find where you can play it. It's called do or die.

I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz.

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.

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.

There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks on somebody else's language.

Jazz is people's music, a collectivity.