"Listening is the key to everything good in music."

"The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities."

"Whatever my recorded output is, it's a reflection of a general love of music."

"I was deep in the zone of practicing almost constantly."

"I don't know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music world and have been able to play exactly what I have wanted the way I have wanted."

"I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about jazz."

"I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young."

"From 1962 to 1965, the guitar became this icon of youth culture, thanks mostly to the Beatles."

"People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds."

"It's more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place."

"The first thing I learned was the theme from Peter Gunn."

"I realized that equipment really had little to do with why I sound like the way I sound."

"Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that."

"I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is."

"I hate the way chorus boxes sound."

"I think I have a basic sound aesthetic that is in most of what I do."

"I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times."

"My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent."