At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself, to be illogical and incoherent by getting rid of structure and simply piling a lot of notes one on top of the other. There's no beat anymore. You can't keep time with your foot. I believe that what is happening to jazz with people like Ornette Coleman, for instance, is bad. There's a new idea that consists in destroying everything and find what's shocking and unexpected; whereas jazz must first of all tell a story that anyone can understand.

Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it.

I don't know where jazz is going. Maybe it's going to hell. You can't make anything go anywhere. It just happens.

The only cats worth anything are the cats that take chances.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.

The inside of the tune [the bridge] is the part that makes the outside sound good.

I never though much about race.