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.

I always believed in being myself.

After two takes you're imitating yourself.

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.

Man, that cat [Ornette Coleman] is nuts.

The majority of juice-heads and winos and junkies arent musicians.

I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.