“Some of the guys I played with .. didn’t go around learning more about their instruments from an intellectual point of view. All they wanted was to play hot jazz, and the instrument was just a means.”

I’d imagine that a lot of them criticized me-said my technique was too good. Something like that. But I’ve always wanted to know what made music. How you do it, and why it sounds good. I always practiced, worked like hell.

As soon as it was understood that we could handle things in our own way, it was the thrill of my life to walk out on that stage with people just hemming the band in.

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.

Creativity grows out of two things: curiosity & imagination.

There was a lot of playing going on, and the New Yorkers, of course, were a completely different crowd from what I’d known.

If you want to do something, you do it anyway, and handle the obstacles as they come.

I remember Glenn Miller coming to me once, before he had his own band, saying, How do you do it? How do you get started? It’s so difficult. I told him, I don’t know but whatever you do don’t stop. Just keep on going.

You have to have the courage and confidence in your own ability. You have to know what the hell and who the hell you are in this business. Music may change, but I don’t think that ever will.

If I have something I want to do, I make a business of doing it.

I don’t have any great love for Chicago. What the hell, a childhood around Douglas Park isn’t very memorable. I remember the street fights and how you were afraid to cross the bridge ’cause the Irish kid on the other side would beat your head in. I left Chicago a long time ago.

There was a refinement about his playing. You know, in those days I played a little trumpet, and I could play all the solos from his records, by heart.

Too many young musicians today want to win polls before they learn their instruments.

People have often said to me, ‘You’re so relaxed when you play.’ Relaxed my elbow. It’s practice.

I’d never heard anything like the way he played-not in Chicago, no place. The tone-he had this wonderful, ringing cornet tone. He could have played in a symphony orchestra with that tone. But also the intervals he played, the figures-whatever the hell he did.

To this day, I don’t like people walking on stage not looking good. You have to look good. If you feel special about yourself then you’re going to play special.

When I first arrived (in New York), it seemed to me the most terrifying city in the world… all those big buildings.

Just ’cause there’s snow on the roof doesn’t mean there’s not a fire inside.

Adolescence is interesting. I mean, all of life is interesting and all of life is transitionary. But I think there is an exponential growth physically, intellectually, emotionally and there is so much potential.

In Russia there is great interethnic hatred, class hatred – I mean hatred for wealthy people – that is stirred up by official propaganda. That is why there can be no ‘velvet’ solution, as there was, for example, in Georgia or Ukraine.

Meditating means bringing the mind back to something again and again. Thus, we all meditate, but unless we direct it in some way, we meditate on ourselves and on our own problems, reinforcing our self-clinging.

Faith means that it doesn’t matter what happens. You can trust that somebody is watching. Trust that somebody will make it all right.

We have a guy from Switzerland who is just playing the game in a way I haven’t seen anyone – and I mean anyone – play before.

Certainly, I was typed. But what is typing? It is a trademark, a means by which the public recognizes you. Actors work all their lives to achieve that. I got mine with just one picture. It was a blessing.

To make something really great and different and interesting means taking risks and following these ideas in your head.