Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.

Then, of course, I played alto and tenor, wherever there were jobs.

The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field.

When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.

If you've only got one horn playing, I still want the sense of ensemble.

The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra.

The Russian composers, especially, tricked the symphony orchestra into the kind of dynamic, rhythmic thing.

I've appeared on some other people's albums.

So I played alto for quite a while until I saved up the money for the baritone.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

Actually, it is a fact that I've been doing more writing than playing in recent years.

This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it's very hard to bear.

In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.

People are approaching electronic levels in music; although not all of it happens to tickle my fancy.

Now, the instrumentation in the jazz band and the jazz dance band has gone through many evolutions. For instance, in the 'twenties the tradition was two or three saxophones.

I'm fascinated with the electronic devices that we can mess around with.

When we've finished the current tour I'm going to go back to Italy and see if I can do some more writing.

Eliminating the piano means that I've always worked closer with the bass than most players.

You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.

New York is still where I live most of the time.

Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

People talk about innovations and evolutions and that kind of thing; I don't understand about that nonsense. It's like, all instruments are there to use all the time.

The baritone can serve functions that the alto and tenor cannot, in orchestral voicing.

In fact, I heard Bird first, and had got well into listening to him. You know, it's the kind of accidental thing that awareness of a player is: what's available, what somebody happens to play for you.

The first reason for starting to do the symphony concerts was to play this new piece of mine.

You start way down on a low B flat on the tuba and you have a chromatic scale; you can match the colours all the way up, till you get to the top of the trumpet.

Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.

Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.

It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

I've always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.

I started recording because I was always complaining about the records that I was getting of my songs. At least if I did them and messed them up, I wouldn't have anyone else to blame.

Then I decided I couldn't just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction.

The things in my songs are the edited highlights of my life. I don't go seeking out strange sexual experiences every day of the week.

The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.

All my songs were solo voices. Just me singing. In fact, that was the gimmick - no gimmick. Just singing straight with not too much background.

It's part of the calling to at least do a few songs in the show that give people some hope. There's so much hurt in this world and... music is such a great healing balm and a great way to forget your troubles.

Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.

My vocal ability is very limited, but I'm fortunate in that I can write the songs around my vocal limitations.

I've written many extra verses to songs that I learned to sing - an extra verse about a friend, or just add some verse - and that led to writing my own songs.

When I heard his first songs, Dylan was answering certain questions that I had all my life been asking myself.

The bands that wrote the big, heroic rock songs - I really wanted to make a record like that.

Every time the guys were knocked out by my guitar playing and the girls were knocked out by the type of songs I did. That set us apart from the average blues band.

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish.

All my songs are where I am.

That's what I like to do, I like to make songs.

We would turn everything into songs in those days.

Sometimes, but the year I lived in France I started to write songs.

Writing songs has a therapeutic effect, and it either kills off love or wins the heart of the lover.

I had deeper, more reflective songs on the first album.