I have been able to get a small audience. It's not the huge audience, but it's enough to make it possible to play. I appreciate that.

In some ways Lester Young is the most complex rhythmically of any musician. He does some things which are just phenomenal.

I understood that if I wanted to work, the saxophone was the main instrument. The clarinet was what we call a double.

Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That's why I wanted the clarinet.

I love Indian music very much, but I haven't studied that specifically.

I could stop and say, Well that was a D minor, G seven, but I really don't want to know that. I just want to know that there's a combination of notes that makes a sound.

Most jazz players work out their solos, at least to the extent that they have a very specific vocabulary.

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

After playing now for 60 years, it's still very challenging for me to play a simple melody and have it clean and touch the reed at the proper time in the proper way.

A first love always occupies a special place.

I'd like to feel that whatever I play is a result of whatever I've heard.

As long as some sufferThe River Flows ForeverAs long as there is painThe River Flows ForeverAs strong as a smile can beThe River will Flow Forever

From the very second that two people sat together around a fire in the forest, there was another human out there who felt better in the dark.

The movie that changed my life, ' he liked to say, by which he meant that it had changed his wardrobe.

Those of us have minimized expectations walk around with a greater sense of thankfulness (because so many wonderful things that we didn't expect come our way each day).

Someone who always has to lie discovers that every one of his lies is true

I played football, honestly, to get a scholarship.

When dictatorship is a fact, revolution is a duty!

Cuba may be the only place in the world where you can be yourself and more than yourself at the same time.

This cabin, Mary, in my sight appears, Built as it has been in our waning years, A rest afforded to our weary feet, Preliminary to - the last retreat.

Oh! where does faithful Gélert roam, The flow'r of all his race? So true, so brave; a lamb at home, A lion in the chase.