Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn't have a choice.

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

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

I appreciate men like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins very much.

We made records to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records. I still feel that way. I put out a record because I think it's beautiful, not necessarily commercial.

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