"Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his fo…"

"Ladies and gentlemen, please don't associate me with any of this. This is not jazz. These are sick people."

"In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time."

"That sound in tune to you? ... Sounds sharp to me. Sounds like I'm playing sharp all the time. My singing teacher tol…"

"Since the white man says he came from the evolution of animals, well, maybe the black man didn't. The white man has m…"

"What do you think happens to a composer who is sincere and loves to write and has to wait thirty years to have someon…"

"It seems so hard for some of us to grow up mentally just enough to realize that there are other persons of flesh and …"

"I think my own way. I don't think like you and my music isn't meant just for the patting of feet and going down backs…"

"Each jazz musician when he takes a horn in his hand — trumpet, bass, saxophone, drums — whatever instrument he plays …"

"Now, whether there is feeling or not depends upon what your environment or your association is or whatever you may ha…"