Quotes from Coleman Hawkins

I made the tenor sax - there's nobody plays like me and I don't play like anybody else

I don't think about music as being new or modern. I just play.

You can separate the men from the boys and ballads.

Some people say there was no jazz tenor before me. All I know is I just had a way of playing and I didn't think in terms of any other instrument but the tenor.

"If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying."

Music should always be an adventure.

Some of my biggest moments have been in jam sessions, but I don't want to talk about them. There were always other people involved.

I honestly can't characterize my style in words. It seems that whatever comes to me naturally, I play.

If you don't make mistakes you are not really trying.