The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it's still a melody.

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

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

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

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.

Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.

There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. they are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence.

The value of jazz still has to be clarified. People involve themselves with its superficialities without digging for its soul.

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won't come out.

I practiced saxophone eight hours a day for the first two years I played.

How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole

Those who are arrogant and controlling are determined to cling to spoken words but peaceful hearts are unafraid to go deeper beneath the surface.

When I have a wrong attitude, I look at life humanly. When I have a right attitude, I look at life divinely.

Change is possible.''Change is inevitable.

Never think you've seen the last of anything.

Like family, we are tied to each other. This is what all good musicians understand.

The sum of the parts equals less than the whole. Or the howl. Or the how. Or the hole.

There's round-winners, and there's fighters.

How you go about moving within the world you live in says so much about who you are.

And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves.