I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young

Its more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place.

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.

Listening is the key to everything good in music.

One very fundamental thing has not changed and I realized that it will never change... is that I really need to go home and practice.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

Most guys at Berklee are going to wind up truck drivers.

More and more as time has gone on, I realize that playing is really more about listening than it is about playing.

Smokin' at the Half Note is the absolute greatest jazz-guitar album ever made. It is also the record that taught me how to play.

Learning to play is mostly about learning to hear, and learning to really listen deeply to sound in a musical way is a lifetime's worth of work.

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

My heart keeps begging me for a reason to keep beating, but I'm running out of lies to tell it

I find it inspiring to actively choose which traditions to celebrate and also come up with new ideas for traditions of my own.

One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not to be done at all.

My dog keeps looking at me as if he knows my secret, as if he and he alone can see my soul. That or he wants this pork chop.

It's not about one person doing one big thing ... It's about a lot of people doing small things that really make the difference.

A skilled worker, regardless of the job description, remains a treasure.

In the calmness of the walk, horse and rider can find the time to think and to prepare the quality of the following trot and canter.

All change is bad. But sometimes it has to be done.

The news is disease in disguise pretending to be information.

Everything will probably never be Ok. But we have to try for it.