Musician

To most jazz critics I was basically Kenny G.

You have to be concerned with yourself because if you're not on it all the time, nobody else is going to be.

Being selfish to me means that you have to look out for yourself and you don't have to sacrifice.

But when I first got cancer, after the initial shock and the fear and paranoia and crying and all that goes with cancer - that word means to most people ultimate death - I decided to see what I could do to take that negative and use it in a positive way.

One of the advantages of not having a record contract is that you can make your own mistakes, you don't need somebody else to organize them for you.

Being stubborn has helped, being selfish is not a bad thing.

My ego is controlled enough that I don't have to be the focus.

But when I first got cancer, after the initial shock and the fear and paranoia and crying and all that goes with cancer - that word means to most people ultimate death - I decided to see what I could do to take that negative and use it in a positive way.

By the time I'm 90, I hope to have it together.

Think about it: Look at the strides of awareness and treatment and tests that women have had with breast cancer, that the gay community has had with AIDS, because they're active and they talk about it.

The reality is that what you find out is that your head is the medicine. If your head is not in the right place and you don't think positively, all the medicine technology in the world is not going to work.

You have to be concerned with yourself because if you're not on it all the time, nobody else is going to be.

Being selfish to me means that you have to look out for yourself and you don't have to sacrifice.

Music allows the great opportunity to play with people who turned you on and you love.

The music we're playing now is based on my heritage, which is Russian, Romanian and Hungarian.

When you get cancer, it's like really time to look at what your life was and is, and I decided that everything I've done so far is not as important as what I'm going to do now.

Why do you have to retire at 65? Why can't you start at 70? You know, like wine. Why can't music be that way? My new band, we're playing stuff that's never been done before.

One of the advantages of not having a record contract is that you can make your own mistakes, you don't need somebody else to organize them for you.

Being stubborn has helped, being selfish is not a bad thing.

If you want to play somebody's music, you'd better go into his house.