“I’d like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.”

All of the technique doesn’t matter only if the feeling is right.

Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.

There are so many things to be considered in making music. The whole question of life itself… I know that I want to produce beautiful music, music that does things to people that they need.

The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.

You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.

One positive thought produces millions of positive vibrations.

I want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know there are bad forces. You know, I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.

Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

Don’t ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.

I believe that men are here to grow themselves into the best good that they can be – at least, this is what I want to do.

God breathes through us so completely, So gently we hardly feel it, yet it is our everything.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being…When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups…I want to speak to their souls.

I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.

All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.

The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.

We are trapped by language to such a degree that every attempt to formulate insight is a play on words.

What is that we human beings ultimately depend on? We depend on our words. We are suspended in language. Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others.

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.

Don’t fear it. That pull between your heart and mind. It is trying to teach you. It is learning your language.

Letting go is actually the easiest decision we can make. We become so adapted to the weight of our heavy hearts that being light again is a foreign language.

A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them.