When I arrived in New York I was definitely the worst player in town! It was just a measure of how far I had to go. It took years, while I was at Jui…

- Paul Bley

Ornette Coleman wasn't sure whether he was going to continue with Charlie Haden-Charlie had some personal problems. I said "You've got to be kidding!…

- Paul Bley

I think we've all had enough of Coltrane saxophonists. There's a case of someone ruining a generation of saxophonists, as Louis Armstrong may have ru…

- Paul Bley

I anticipated all the changes in jazz because they were all problematical things, that I was dealing with myself. In New York in the late '50s, there…

- Paul Bley

Now as jazz musicians we're saying for this society, you can free up your imagination. You can proceed in an area without much information and you ca…

- Paul Bley

The Beatles came and everybody forgot about everything else. That was a friendly, together, hip interpersonal music, introducing electric sustain, an…

- Paul Bley

I think all record companies should be run by a musician. Just as you wouldn't trust your health to an electrician.

- Paul Bley

Adam Berenson knows how to compose, organize an ensemble, do musical research, play solo and trio piano, write for musical journals, and enlist other…

- Paul Bley