My older brother and myself always played together in bands, but we never knew we would be professional musicians.

The only justification for looking down on anyone is that you're going to stop and pick them up.

Music is always for the listener, but the first listener is always the musician

Whenever you face a man who's playing your instrument, there's a competition.

And my identity...I never really wondered about it because, unfortunately, I sounded like myself. People be saying I sound like Miles or Clifford Brown.

I think that virtuosity is the first sign of morality in a musician. It means you're serious enough to practice.

I feel that for years of teaching in the country and reading criticism in books, I feel like the things most needed in our culture are the understanding of the meanings of our music. We haven't done that good of job teaching our kids what our music means or how we developed our taste in music that reminds us and teaches us who we are.