Hearing myself so much all the time, I don’t think I sound that special all the time because it’s me.

I’ve always regretted the fact that I’ve never formally studied and learned the mechanics of writing music.

People think that I play effortlessly. I remember doing a record date with Bill Evans and afterwards he said to me, you make it sound so easy but when I get right up next to you you’re working hard and making it sound easy!

You don’t rehearse jazz to death to get the camera angles.

When I’m alcohol-free now and even to see the world around me, I appreciate it, but I never truly enjoy too much of it maybe because I feel like I’m a working musician. There are some joyous moments, but I will not think a joyous moment.

I had a 10-year heroin habit and kicked that. Then I became an alcoholic. I drank two fifth’s a day.

I came from an era when we didn’t use electronic instruments. The bass wasn’t even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it’s like the human voice.

My life is music, and in some vague, mysterious and subconscious way, I have always been driven by a taut inner spring which has propelled me to almost compulsively reach for perfection in music, often – in fact, mostly – at the expense of everything else in my life.

Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn’t have a choice.