“I dont listen to my own records a lot. Once in a while – to check out my mistakes. Because you can always see a spot or two in the record where you could have done better. So you more or less study this way.”

I used to live at the Cecil Hotel, which was next door to Minton’s [Playhouse]. We used to jam just about every night when we were off. Lester [Young], Don Byas and myself – we would meet there all the time and like, exchange ideas. It wasn’t a battle, or anything.

I’ve been back in New York a year and a half now. Before that I was on the West Coast for five years.

If you try all different styles that are in vogue, I think you con yourself. Me, I just stick by my guns; I don’t want to play out of another man’s bag.

I like to play things that people understand, or maybe tunes that they could recognize. And so — I play for the people, just as much as for myself. Because, as I say, I still like to play.

I don’t want to play out of another man’s bag.

There’s no comparison between the two. You hear things in New York you don’t hear anywhere else. Unless these guys go out. Quite a few make it out to the Coast. Of course, you can’t stay in New York for ever. You have to move.

Like every other place, I guess, Kansas City was quite a different city when I was a youngster there. They had quite a few clubs, and we had what we used to call jam sessions every night.

You can mix two styles and get fusion; any more and you just get confusion.

The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts.

There are two kinds of humans – the intelligent, who have no religion, and the religious, who have no intellect.

The last two years, nationals have been close to home for me, so I’ve had big family support from friends and club support.

Deux me’ tresou un peu plusse parent donc l’homme de la femme. Two metres, or a little more, separates a man from a woman.

We mortals are composed of two great schools Enlightened knaves or else religious fools.

Love is not a contract between two narcissists.

What kind of world does one see when one experiences it from the point of view of two and not one?