Those who want to know what sound goes into my music should come to NY and open their ears.

I'd go stupid collecting and counting my money.

I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing - even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.

It can't be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean!

Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by... What you don't play can be more important than what you do.

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

When I was a kid, some of the guys would try to get me to hate white people for what they've been doing to Negroes, and for a while I tried real hard. But every time I got to hating them, some white guy would come along and mess the whole thing up.