Eric Dolphy

“When you hear music, after it's over, it's gone in the air. You can never capture it again.”

“It's just musical. I don't know what style it is.”

“I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.”

“I can't understand it... all I know is that I play the way I feel.”

“If I can't play it, I won't write it.”

“Music is a reflection of everything that happens in the world.”

“I think of my solos as a statement of my life.”

“The first time I heard Bird, it just clean knocked me out.”

“I don't think I'm 'avant-garde'. It's just that I hear something and I try to get it down.”

“Once you know the fundamentals, you can do anything.”

“What I'm trying to do is to make the horn a voice.”