I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.

...The key to playing with any group is you listen all the time and you listen more than you play.

Hang on to your eccentricities, because they will give you a style.

When you compare music, you lose the joy of listening to it.

We don't want any vocalist messing up the music.

Sound is what drives my solos, not verbal concepts, I never think 'I'm going to use a Lydian Dominant scale and then go up a half-step', even though that might be exactly what I end up doing.

I like forms that are flexible, that can let you feel creative.

Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles?

Generally, when a record label suggests album ideas for you, you smile politely, and then proceed to shoot it down, because it's never what you as an artist feel is right for you.

True friends define each other.

Her eyes were like the sea before a storm on the Carolina coast.

Party is pleasure.

I never give anyone just one congratulation. Congratulations are always plural. They are similar to grapes.

Being famous gets me good concert tickets, good tables in restaurants, good seats at sporting events and that's really about it.

Playing characters that speak a very violent language was my livelihood.

A man seldom thinks of marrying when he meets his ideal woman; he waits until he gets the marrying fever and then idealizes the first woman he happens to meet.

Whenever I'm in trouble, I pray. And because I'm in trouble all of the time, I pray almost constantly.

Kids cannot follow stories. They don't know what the hell is going on in a cartoon. They like to see funny visual things happening.

Everything is fraught with fear: Renunciation alone is fearless.