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.

All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.

The loudest noise in the world is silence.

I can shoot pool, and I can play ping-pong. I'm pretty good at those games.

I don't know what other people are doing - I just know about me.

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

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.