“Everybody want to know what the kids was listening to, what kind of music they was listening to, or what kind of movies they was watching. Who gives a fuck what they was watching? Whatever happened to CRAZY?”

“Don’t listen to what people say; watch what they do.”

“They choose what you’re watching and you don’t mind
They choose what you’re watching ‘cause they’re so kind
They choose what you’re watching and you don’t mind
Dunno what you’re watching and you don’t mind”

“People are watching the way we act, more than they are listening to what we say.”

“All you can usually say about a poem or a picture is, 'Look at it, listen to it.' Whether you listen to a piece of music or a poem, or look at a picture or a jug or a piece of sculpture, what matters about it is not what it has in common with others of its kind, but what is singularly its own.”

“I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going.”

“I usually do field work before I sit down to play with somebody; in other words I go listen to them play in a concert, listen to their music, tapes, whatever, so that when I sit down with them, I have a vague idea what their temperament is about and what kind of musical patterns they enjoy playing. Solo, I am the captain of the ship, and I decide what I will play and dictate the pace of the show.”

“He understood whatever those hidden mechanisms are that convince people to trust you. I kind of watched him and absorbed what I could from him.”

“There are those who make things happen, there are those who watch things happen and there are those who say 'what happened?”

“Listen to them — children of the night. What music they make.”