I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone.

If you listen to Louis Armstrong from 1929, you will never hear anything better than that really, and you will never hear anything more free than that.

When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly.

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

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

I've performed solo for 20 years now, but I don't do much of it, because if you only play alone, you go crazy and out of tune and play foolish music.

Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo.