My schedule is always tight. But I like to have the pressure of having to finish doing something; it gives me an added edge.

Even in these times, there are still neighbors that will turn their backs on neighbors.

I travel up and down the country and I've been all around the middle of America for many years. Middle America is not one big mass of people with a proverbial beer in its hand, keeping the country down. That is not my experience of it and I don't labor under that misconception. And we have a long tradition of coming together through music in our country.

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

I'm just lucky to have the type of friends and musicians and people dedicated to my music that I do.

When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more and more each year.

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