Sonny Rollins

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress…so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be Jazz.

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one’s own.

Jazz never ends… it just continues.

Even if you have some brilliant jazz ideas, it’s going to be difficult to get them across unless you have 1-a distinctive sound or 2- a loud sound. These are musts.

To play without passion is inexcusable.

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night, but differently each time.

If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time!

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

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

When rock came in, people didn’t know what to do. Even Sinatra, he didn’t know what to do. The music was changing. And it’s changing now.

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.

I went through a struggle, and I really needed to get myself together and connect with my purpose, which is music.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness.

Gershwin was right in his time, at his time. Everybody else was behind.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

I wanna hear myself everywhere

Just ’cause I’ve forgotten more than I can play, doesn’t mean it’s not Improv.

Anytime you strike the drums, you have to be aware that you’re creating a musical event.

Wes Montgomery played impossible things on the guitar because it was never pointed out to him that they were impossible.