Sonny Rollins Quotes & Sayings

“But if I didn't have to make money, I would still play my horn.”

“There was a period which I refer to as the 'Golden Age of Jazz,' which sort of encompasses the middle Thirties through the Sixties, we had a lot of great innovators, all creating things which will last the world for a long, long time.”

“I feel that L.A. has not always been my strongest base for support. That can be for various reasons.”

“I think we are in the midst of this period where we are committing this suicide on the planet and everybody is just using up all of our natural resources like a bunch of insane people. That's what I worry about more than I worry about jazz.”

“I am a person who thinks about the music first in trying to achieve something musically valid.”

“I have always been a person who is concerned with the dignity of jazz music and the way jazz musicians have been treated and are treated, and the fact that the music has not been given the kind of due that it deserves.”

“I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.”

“I think the problem starts with the general appreciation of the music in the larger society.”

“What I am more concerned about is whether our whole civilization will be around in the next 25 years.”

“Even the most jingoistic person would have to admit that even American cultural music comes from Europe. That's what classical music is, real European music.”