I don't let my mouth say nothin' my head can't stand.

Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for.

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.

Don't do nothing halfway, else you find yourself dropping more than can be picked up.

What we play is life.

I got a simple rule about everybody. If you don't treat me right - shame on you.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.

Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him.

And I think to myself what a wonderful world. Oh, yeah.

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.

A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.

I'm always going back to one thing - my family... It's my family, my religion, my fighters. Put them in any order you want.

I try to take everyone's head off, to tell the truth.

I like to play with someone who can cover a lot of ground and someone with whom you can discuss the language at a reasonable level; otherwise it gets a bit frustrating.

Fans always ask, What did the bedroom look like? All they ever saw was Alice or Ralph going in and out.

I don't like rehearsal.

I want freedom and I realize that the only way to get it is to quit breaking the law.

Who said the road doesn’t have bumps? It can still be traveled. So people can fall down: it doesn’t mean they can’t get up again and keep going.

Water is being depleted many, many times faster than nature can replenish it.

It's either not good enough and dies altogether, or it develops.

You can't hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have