Before the work comes to you, you have to invent work.

- Steve Lacy

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…

- Steve Lacy

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

- Steve Lacy

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…

- Steve Lacy

I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed.

- Steve Lacy

The potential for the saxophone is unlimited.

- Steve Lacy

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

- Steve Lacy

It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing.

- Steve Lacy

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

- Steve Lacy