Cecil Taylor

“I understand about the relative strengths of people, and I don't think people have to be anything. They can be nothin' if they want to be.”

“I've always tried to be a poet more than anything else. I mean, professional musicians die.”

“You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you're really interested in it.”

“One of the things Mother said to me, 'You want this, you're going to practice.' And I know how to practice.”

“Before he fought Billy Conn, Joe Louis said, 'He can run, but he can't hide.' That's how I feel about New York: You can run from it, but you can't hide.”

“Fats - very funny man, but every note that he played was like a pearl.”