If you don't make mistakes you are not really trying.

- Coleman Hawkins

Some people say there was no jazz tenor before me. All I know is I just had a way of playing and I didn't think in terms of any other instrument but …

- Coleman Hawkins

Music should always be an adventure.

- Coleman Hawkins

"If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying."

- Coleman Hawkins

You can separate the men from the boys and ballads.

- Coleman Hawkins

There's no such thing as bop music, but there's such a thing as progress.

- Coleman Hawkins

Some of my biggest moments have been in jam sessions, but I don't want to talk about them. There were always other people involved.

- Coleman Hawkins

If they think they are doing something new, they ought to do what I do every day - spend at least two hours every day listening to Johann Sebastian B…

- Coleman Hawkins

I don't think about music as being new or modern. I just play.

- Coleman Hawkins