Charlie Parker

"Leaders are born from overcoming adversity."

"Never give up on your dreams."

"Laughter is the best medicine."

"Love conquers all obstacles."

"Change is the only constant in life."

"Your voice matters. Speak your truth."

"You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up on the bandstand, forget all that and just play."

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn."

"Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you."

"The real problem is that we're all lazy. We don't want to work and that's the truth."

"If you don't have freedom, you don't have nothing."

"Yardbird, that's the greatest compliment they could pay me."

"You can play a melody hundreds of times and play it differently each time."

"The musicians themselves haven't always done the right thing either, let's be honest about that."

"I'm in a different groove right now."

"They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."

"I looked in the mirror and I saw Charlie Parker looking back at me."

"Blues is the root, everything else is the fruits."

"When you come down to brass tacks, nobody wants to help you."

"Man, there's no rules in jazz. The only rule is don't bore the people."

"I realized by using high notes a lot, I could get effects that were impossible to get in a conventional way."

"The only real law in music is the law of good taste."

"Playing is like love. You must be completely absorbed in it."

"Stop trying to play the saxophone like someone else. Play it like you."

"I want them to remember me as a musician who loved to play."

"Every musician wants to go down in history. That's natural."

"You can't steal a beat. It's either in you or it isn't."

"Master your instrument. Then forget about it and just play from your heart."

"I'm alive, I'm suffering, and I'm grateful for both."

"The way to learn is to listen, really listen."