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.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music.

Jazz never ends… it just continues.

I’m fortunate that I’m making a living at it now because I’m not equipped to do anything else.

We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

You have a mentor or teacher and you learn all he can show you.

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.

I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

We might as well swing boys, because Stravinsky cuts us all.

There’s millions and millions of people who think Les Paul is a guitar!

Using drugs didn’t help me play, all it did was hang me up for 15 years.

The fans dictate to you when you’re done!

I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.

I wanna hear myself everywhere

Jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

I’ve been a jazz artist playing pop and R&B my entire career.

People who are meant to be drawn to your music will find you.