Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

Being a musician is what I do, but it's not what I am.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

I feel a lot more secure about the directions I take, than I might have, had I not practiced Buddhism.

Getting the Oscar had the biggest impression on me.

When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom.

You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.

But I have to be careful not to let the world dazzle me so much that I forget that I'm a husband and a father.

But, the truth is that everyone is somebody already.

Since time is a continuum, the moment is always different, so the music is always different.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

In the past, there's always been one leader that has led the pack to development of the music.

Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.

I try stuff. I synthesize what's of value with some of the other things I have at my disposal.

We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.

Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

I try to practice with my life.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

I'm always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.

One thing that attracted me to Buddhism was the support for this larger vision of values.

I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

Music is the tool to express life - and all that makes a difference.

I think there's a great beauty to having problems. That's one of the ways we learn.

The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique.

It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

Creativity shouldn't be following radio; it should be the other way around.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom.

See, there were certain rules I'd always used, and people like Trane, they would break those rules.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

It is people's hearts that move the age.

Miles' sessions were not typical of anybody else's sessions. They were totally unique.

You can practice to learn a technique, but I'm more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.

I've been a religious, spiritual person for a long time.

I think I was supposed to play jazz.

It's not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

When I was coming up, I practiced all the time because I thought if I didn't I couldn't do my best.

While knowledge may provide useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future.

All you have to do is play one note. But it needs to be the right note.

As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in. So, I'm concerned about peace. I'm concerned about - about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.

Back in the day for me was a great time in my life - I was in my 20s. Most people refer to their experiences in their twenties as being a highlight in their life. It's a period of time where you often develop your own way, your own sound, your own identity, and that happened with me, when I was with a great teacher - Miles Davis.

Being vulnerable is allowing yourself to trust. That's hard for a lot of people to do. They feel a lot more secure if they kind of put walls around themselves. Then they don't have to trust anybody but themselves.

Buddhism has turned me on to my humanness, and is challenging my humanness so that I can become more human.