I never planned to be a musician, had no thought of doing that, Charlie Christian was my inspiration. I heard his "Solo Flight" and something about it made an impression.

My aim is to move from one vein to the other without any trouble. Like, if you're going to take a melody line or a counterpoint or a unison line with another instrument, do that, then maybe next time you'll play phrases and chords, or maybe you'll take an octave or something. That way you'll have a lot of variations there. John Coltrane has been a sort of a god to me.

I didn't like the sound of the pick, I tried it for I guess, about two months. I didn't even use my thumb at all. So I said, "Well, which are you going to do?" I liked the tone better with the thumb, but I liked the technique with the pick. I couldn't have them both, so I just have to cool.

I got a standard box - I don't never want nothing special. Then, if I drop my box, I can borrow somebody else's.

I have seen what happened to people like Tatum and Coltrane. Though Coltrane died before his thing was resolved, Tatum died at a time when he should have enjoyed all the benefits of being the greatest piano player in existence--but he didn't, you dig? It doesn't matter how much artistry one has; it's how it's presented that counts. Those who criticize me for playing jazz too simply and such are missing the point; there is a jazz concept to what I'm doing, but I'm playing popular music and it should be regarded as such. The guitar is just a hard instrument. A cat will listen to a guy that is playing and think he can do that, but he won't study on how long that cat's been playing. Then he gets discouraged because he can't even get two notes out. Then he says he'll struggle with it himself, and maybe he'll find out in six months that he still can't make a line, then he feels like he's a dumb cat. But when you find guitar players that are playing, you'll find out that at one time they never cared if they never played, they were going to keep on until they did. After a period of time the beginning player will hear a little difference in his playing, and that little inspiration is enough to go further, and the first thing you know you won't back out. The biggest problem is getting started.