1997:  “I try not to allow myself any preconceived ideas of what I should sound like, what kind of music I ought to be writing, or what I ought to be listening to. In this way, I hope to discover what I actually do sound like, and what I enjoy in music. The moments of greatest beauty and originality always seem to happen when there’s no agenda.”
 
“There are a million different directions you can make from any one note, and as the evolution of jazz has progressed, the number of choices has increased. I’m just trying to make the most interesting choices I can.”
 
1998:  “I’m trying to write tunes that are a product of all the things that I have listened to and dig, including the kinds of jazz that have evolved in the last thirty years through people like Ornette and Dewey Redman, 20th century classical music by Messiaen and Bartok, world music, funk, country, whatever. The more I study all of this, the more these influences come out in the way I write -- and play.”
 
[re the influence of the jazz pioneers of the 30s, 40s and 50s]:  “What I have learned from them in terms of phrasing, sound and approach to rhythm will never be outdated. I want my music to have that emotional impact. And I would like to apply the same sort of aesthetic sensibilities that those people had to more contemporary harmonic and rhythmic concepts.”