No one is original. Everyone is derivative..

...this is my dilemma. I'm a guy who makes things up as I go along, so nothing is ever finished - there are so many layers. So when you solo, yeah, y….

I feel that I have an obligation to jazz and also to myself to play as good as I can play..

We have to make ourselves as perfect as we can..

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz..

I want to be connecting with the subconscious, if I can call it that, because there are not to many words to describe the real deep inner part of a h….

I miss playing with Miles. I did play with him a little while before he left the planet, but even at that time I longed to maybe do some things toget….

I'm now a legend, whether I want to be or not..

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music..

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own..

I'll know when I find the ultimate sound..

I have always been a person who is concerned with the dignity of jazz music and the way jazz musicians have been treated and are treated, and the fac….

Improvisation is really not so much remembering things. And this is what I do when I play. I forget things. When I go on the stage, I want my mind to….

I think music should be judged on what it is. It should be very high and above everything else. It is a beautiful way of bringing people together, a ….

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress...so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair..

What I am more concerned about is whether our whole civilization will be around in the next 25 years..

The thing is this: When I play, what I try to do is to reach my subconscious level. I don't want to overtly think about anything, because you can't t….

I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The ….

Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life..

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music. That was his reason for being alive. Nothing else mattered except ….

But if I didn't have to make money, I would still play my horn..