It's a matter of choosing what is most important to you and putting that first. Once you have recognized your true purpose in life, this becomes much easier.

I hung out in the Baltimore area a lot. My biggest memory was playing football against Morgan. That was, like, 'Forget about it,' that was a really big thing. They used to kick our butts all the time.

I don't care about the gold records and all of that stuff. I care about what we do onstage, and the joy that we bring to people.

I do read music, but I prefer playing from the heart.

I didn't think I'd ever be a Michael Jackson fan. But... watching him move, watching him dance, is so encouraging for me. Because, in my mind, I can do all that stuff.

I've been pretty blessed. Sometimes it comes in disguise.

I found out how great the E Street Band is. The reality of a band that you can't scoop aside, can't put in a corner.

God will give you no more than you can handle.

Before the Berlin Wall came down, we played behind the Iron Curtain and sang, 'Born in the U.S.A.,' and I thought, 'We're all going to die. The man is going to get us all killed.' But then you saw all these kids with the American flag and German flags together and singing the song, and it was, wow, like 'We Shall Overcome.'

There'll be no oiling up with this band. The oil has been there for years and it only gets better.

As a horn player, the greatest compliment one can get is when a person comes to you and says, 'I heard this saxophone on the radio the other day and I knew it was you. I don't know the song, but I know it was you on sax.'

I look forward to working out every day.

The word spiritual, not the word religious, is the key.

I like health-conscious cooking, but growing up in the South, I do love southern cooking; southern France, southern Italy, southern Spain. I love southern cooking.

In the mental calmness of a spiritual life, I have found that the answers to the whys in our lives are able to come to you. In my music I find the same thing.

I take my job as a rock and roll sax player very seriously. To do it the way that I must do it, I must be in good condition. The better shape you're in, the harder you can rock.

Now that I am much older, I have had a number of sax players tell me I was responsible for them playing sax. Some of them I have admired over the years.

When I grew up, there was one music: rock n' roll. Somewhere along the line, there was a separation. I don't know why it happened, but it did happen.

The first time I ever saw a black audience at our concert, we were in Zimbabwe.

When I walk on stage, it's the 'healing floor.' No matter how bad I'm hurting, I get out there and do it.

It's like Liverpool. Everybody went for the music. All the young musicians seemed to gravitate to Asbury Park.

I got into the soul music, but I wanted to rock. I was a rocker.

I grew up with a very religious background.

You had your black bands, and you had your white bands, and if you mixed the two, you found less places to play.

Rock-and-roll, to me, is very serious because we deal with the young people. We deal with people who need something, and that's the same thing that a preacher does. He feeds you something that you need spiritually in your soul and in your makeup.

As long as my mouth, hands, and brain still work, I'll be out there doing it. I'm going to keep going 'til I'm not there anymore. This is what's keeping me alive and feeling young and inspired.

To me, the sax is rock n' roll, even though electric guitars kind of pushed it aside for a while.

I'm a mellow fellow. Nothing much bothers me.

Nobody played instruments in my family. My father got that bug and said he wants his son to play saxophone.

I have no agenda - just to be loved.

Somebody said to me, 'Whenever somebody says your name, a smile comes to their face.' That's a great accolade. I strive to keep it that way.