Cecil Taylor

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

The emphasis in each piece is on building a whole, totally integrated structure. In doing this, we try to carry on - in ensemble as well as solo sections - the mood of a jazz soloist. I mean that principle of kinetic improvisation that keeps a jazz solo building.

They say, 'We will give you money, but we want you to play this or that.' And I always thought, 'If I'm going to do that, I might as well go back and be a dishwasher.'

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.

What I am doing is creating a language. A different American language.

Someone once asked me if I was gay. I said, 'Do you think a three-letter word defines the complexity of my humanity?' I avoid the trap of easy definition.

Lena Horne - when she walked onstage, she really was Erzulie.

Mother, being a pianist, told me how to play with my fingers on the piano.

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

The quality of life, values that go down to doin' that, that's the issue.

Rhythm is the life of space of time danced through.

If you take the creation of music and the creation of your own life values as your overall goal, then living becomes a musical process.