My roots are in my record player.

Improvisation is a compositional method.

I think the voice does that perfectly adequately without being imitated by other instruments.

You know, the whole philosophy of ad hoc combinations has its strengths and its weaknesses.

In a certain sense, aspects of my solo playing were developed in order to test the theory about how long particular elements could be, as parts of so-called free improvisations.

Those early steps are very important in understanding the evolution. But in themselves, maybe now you need the later records to understand the significance of the earlier records!

We all listened to a lot of recorded music, especially American jazz, modern jazz, and that's where our studies were and our inspiration came from.

To speak about notation as the only way that you can guarantee structure of course is already very suspect.

There are many of these apparent philosophical paradoxes or contradictions which don't concern me anymore.

I think the solo playing, the decision to start playing solo, came out of having discovered what lay behind the doors that that technique opened for me.

When you add a period of 25 years between the playing and the listening, then the whole question of meaning gets very complicated.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you free.

Whatever you want in life other people are going to want it too. Believe in yourself enough to accept the idea that you have an equal right to it.

I always laugh when people ask me about rebounding techniques. I've got a technique. It's called just go get the damn ball.

Rules, after all, are only made so you can work around them

Major organizational changes create uncertainty.

Love gives a sense of rest.

The lad who dreams of being a boxing champion or an admiral chooses reality. If the writer chooses the imaginary, he confuses the two.

I'm interested in music as an extension of character.

People think that young people don't care about things, but I think they do care; they just aren't super interested in conforming to what older people think are the right way to do things.

There's an energy about Nashville that I love and I miss. And it's so awesome right now. It has a new energy that's so cool.