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

You don't rehearse jazz to death to get the camera angles.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice.

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

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.

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

There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. they are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence.

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

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

I practiced saxophone eight hours a day for the first two years I played.

No poison can kill quicker than bitterness

Creativity is the brain's invisible muscle -- that when used and excercised routinely -- becomes better and stronger.

When you get kicked in the teeth, chew on it: don't bite back.

O I will accompany the windUntil the chainOf my white bonesDrifts like fine sandAnd I become compassing.I become the

I always thought writing was the foundation and the basis for journalism in the same way being able to draw is the foundation for art.

Do you not yet understand what has made woman what she is? Then see what the sickly taste and perverted judgment of man now admires in woman.

We spend our lives trying to get along with people so we can keep our jobs, keep our marriages together, so that we can raise our kids properly.

Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly.

I'm talking ideal, I live in heaven, and my stomach is bottomless.

Sometimes I try to take a nap before shows. That clears my head.