Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity. I don't think I ever had to listen to anyone else to learn how to play drums. I wis….

I think it's a fallacy that the harder you practice the better you get..

Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity..

But I think that any young drummer starting out today should get himself a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument that he ….

I think the drummer should sit back there and play some drums, and never mind about the tunes. Just get up there and wail behind whoever is sitting u….

I consider every drummer that ever played before me an influence, in every way..

No, I don't like recording. It's a bore..

I never believed in a set routine. It should depend on how you feel, because you play what you feel..

To have everything written for you It's not really creating. That's why I think symphony drummers are so limited. They 're limited to exactly what wa….

But, I don't think any arranger should ever write a drum part for a drummer because if a drummer can't create his own Interpretation of the chart and….

And, well of course, Count Basie, and I think all of the black bands of the late thirties and early forties, bands with real players. They had an inf….

Every drummer that had a name, had a name because of his individual playing. He didn't sound like anybody else, So everybody that I ever listened to,….

I mean, I think I liked every band I ever played in because each band was different, each band had a different concept, and each band leader was diff….

But primarily, the drummer's supposed to sit back there and swing the band..

I play a percussion instrument, not a musical saw; it needs no amplification. Where it's needed, they put a microphone in front of the bass drum. But….

So, practice, particularly after you've attained a job, any kind of job, like playing with a four piece band, that's... an opportunity to develop..

I think at one time every drummer wanted to play like Krupa or wanted to win a Gene Krupa drum contest. This is the big inspiration for drummers and ….

If you can play, you can play anything. I don't like classifications..

If you have any requests. keep them to yourselves. we don't play requests!.

There were so many individual styles thirty or forty years ago..

As far as music school goes, I walked through Berkelee one time..