“I can’t write anything for myself. I can write when I hear like [John] Coltrane play something; I used to write chords and stuff for him to play in one bar. I can write for other people, but I don’t never write for myself.”

All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

I don’t like to hear someone put down dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

The way you change and help music is by tryin’ to invent new ways to play.

If you have to ask, you’ll never know.

Music is an addiction.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

If you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that you play that determines if it’s good or bad.

My ego only needs a good rhythm section.

Do not be afraid of errors. There are no errors.

Drummers – sometimes they play and they listen. And that little listen takes a speck away from the right tempo.

Don’t be afraid of mistakes – There are none.

White folks always think that you have to have a label on everything – you know what I mean?

People will go for anything they don’t understand if it’s got enough hype.

You can’t compete with Sweets’ sound and time feel. It’s impossible.

I usually know the general emotion of a song, or the general feeling of it, and then I think I just get so excited by the act of recording. I love that process so much that I feel like if

I’m always writing lyrics. I have so many lyrics on so many stray pieces of paper. Everywhere.

There is music wherever there is rhythm, as there is life wherever there beats a pulse.

It is no longer possible for lyric poetry to express the immensity of our experience. Life has grown too cumbersome, too complicated. We have acquired values which are best expressed in prose.

Man is lyrical, woman epic, marriage dramatic.

I have been accused of being a very simplistic, very lyrical player, and that’s okay. That just comes from the blues, which is my background. But every day you wake up and transcend. You can’t ever rest on your laurels.

I don’t really know what inspires me to write the music I do, but usually, the music will set the tone for the lyrics.

A song is a song. But there are some songs, ah, some songs are the greatest. The Beatles song Yesterday. Listen to the lyrics.