I try to play the bare essence, to let everything be just what it's supposed to be..

Learn to play the piano, man, and then you can figure out crazy solos of your own..

Mutual respect is so important because as soon as it disappears in relations between you and the next person, there's trouble..

They're not particular whether you're playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance..

Jazz will be the classical music of the future..

Where there's no mutual respect, there's trouble!.

I used to do a lot of apologizing for what the State Department had done..

I was blessed that I got married early and had a good wife. That sort of kept me straight. Probably I would have been like Charlie Parker, you know, ….

Many critics always saw and heard that my style comes from Roy Eldridge, which is true. But for many things, not only how to play the trumpet but the….

How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don't you ask him? And besides, maybe we'd all like to be like Miles, and just haven't got the guts..

I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds..

One of the reasons we're here is to be a part of this process of exchange..

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your magnificent indifference..

You can't steal a gift. Bird [Charlie Parker] gave the world his music, and if you can hear it you can have it..

Everyone wants to put people on, I think. And get away with it! That's the thing: put people on and get away with it! That's a science in itself..

It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play..

I try to play the bare essence, to let everything be just what it's supposed to be in that particular spot...You have many things to pick from when y….

Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that..

The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play..

The idea of life is to give and receive..

I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It's time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It's ….