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

- Sonny Rollins

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 …

- Sonny Rollins

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

- Sonny Rollins

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…

- Sonny Rollins

Jazz never ends... it just continues.

- Sonny Rollins

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 …

- Sonny Rollins

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

- Sonny Rollins

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…

- Sonny Rollins

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

- Sonny Rollins