“The magic of playing has to do with how much everyone wants it to succeed.”

I have been using delay and reverberation since the middle 1960s. I use them to make what is almost inaudible to the ear, audible. I do not use them to play loudly but to make the higher harmonics heard.

I knew I was not going to be controlled. I knew there was a price for this, but I did not know there was as large a price as it turned out to be.

I have not released large orchestral works as recordings because it hasn’t been within the realm of possibility.

In the middle 1940s… I heard everyone live. Painting, the theater; everything was happening. It was an exciting time when New York was the place to be.

Most of my recorded material has been in small group configurations.

My career has been different from most people, but I knew what I was not going to do.

If I produce it, I will stage it as a performance. A small audience will be invited; rehearsals of the sections will be done in the mornings, and those sections will be recorded in the afternoons.

I have no distributor… it is indicative to me that there are these pockets of players and collectors all over.

There are musicians who do not know their worth, and if they knew it at one time, it has eluded them. I know my worth. You try not to dwell in the past.

If you are you, 24 hours a day, then you do not have to remember who you are supposed to be in different situations – something that I imagine could be troublesome.

If I had money, I would like to get an old building, have music performances, do lithographs, have shows of paintings, and do those things that I’m interested in doing.

I get tired of people making excuses for guys who don’t continue the art because they can’t make a living.

If you have five players in a situation where the music is being improvised and one is determined it is not going to succeed, it won’t succeed even if one of the musicians takes control.

You should see the correspondence I get from over the world letting me know how significant they think I am. I know that wherever I go, I am well received.