Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by... What you don't play can be more important than what you do..

At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself,….

I don't consider myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can't develop any further. But I compose my pieces with a formula that I created m….

The only cats worth anything are the cats that take chances..

Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it..

Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it. A genius is the one most like himself..

Trying to explain music is like trying to dance architecture..

Sometimes it's to your advantage for people to think you're crazy.

It's always night, or we wouldn't need light..

Just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean you don't have to keep time..

Everyone is a genius at being themselves.

It can't be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You….

I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it..

When I was a kid, some of the guys would try to get me to hate white people for what they've been doing to Negroes, and for a while I tried real hard….

Jazz is my adventure. I'm after new chords, new ways of syncopating, new figures, new runs. How to use notes differently. That's it. Just using notes….

I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing - even if it does tak….

All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians..

I didn't know there were 2 ten o'clocks in a day..

Jazz is freedom. You think about that..

A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination..

A genius is the one most like himself..