Jazz is like wine. When it is new it's only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it..

There is an awful lot of what I call recreational jazz going on, where people go out and learn a particular language or style and become real sharks ….

When I came up, it was all about originality and collective research. There is an awful lot of imitation going on now..

I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of jazz..

If you're trying to invent something new, you're going to reach a lot of discouraging points, and most people give up..

When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly..

You can work on the saxophone alone, but ultimately you must perform with others..

Bamboo is not a weed, it's a flowering plant. Bamboo is a magnificent plant..

Play difficult and interesting things. If you play boring things, you risk losing your appetite. Saxophone can be tedious with too much of the same..

Whoever has an original thing to say, it is sort of a threat to the status quo..

It's very important to go through periods where you sound just rotten and you know it, and you have to persevere or give up..

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds..

The soprano has all those other instruments in it. It's got the soprano song voice, flute, violin, clarinet, and tenor elements and can even approach….

Jazz is people's music, a collectivity..

I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone..

If you listen to Louis Armstrong from 1929, you will never hear anything better than that really, and you will never hear anything more free than tha….

Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk..

A jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, poet, singer, dancer, diplomat, educator, student, comedi….

The more original something is, the more of a threat it seems until the people catch up with it. That happened with Thelonious Monk. It happened with….

Circumstances can be very important. Find the right people to work with..

The potential for the saxophone is unlimited..