I'm not tortured and neurasthenic - I'm really not..

Just because a guitar is old doesn't make it good... I've seen guitars that were old but weren't as good as the reissue ... for me, it's not the age ….

In your 20s, you learn. In your 30s, you earn..

Anybody is influenced by where and how he lives..

Studying the behavior of large whales has been likened to astronomy. The observer glimpses his subjects, often at long range; he cannot do experiment….

The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it'….

It’s like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously wit….

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won't come out..

Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz..

A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other's ideas..

The value of jazz still has to be clarified. People involve themselves with its superficialities without digging for its soul..

I compulsively reach for perfection in music, often at the expense of everything else in my life..

Music is enough for a lifetime - but a lifetime is not enough for music..

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

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….

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

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 ….

No one is original. Everyone is derivative..

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

Jazz is the continual pulsation of the now..

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire t….