CLARENCE CLEMONS

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 wanted an electric train for Christmas but I got the saxophone instead.

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.

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.'

The calm mind allows one to connect with the inner self, the Soul, the very source of our being. That's where the music lives. That's where my music comes from.

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

Being involved in the well-being and advancement of one's own community is a most natural thing to do.

I look forward to working out every day.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

How many ways can you cut a steak? How many ways can a chord go? I've been in this business so long, I know how to cut it.

Cooking is an art form, a creative thing.

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.

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.

I'd rather somebody punch me in the face than drop my sax.

I've been thinking about a cookbook. I've been making notes and promising myself I'll do it some day. I have an idea for a cookbook and music together.

What you did, nobody wants to know about it, unless you did something exciting.

Of course, you get exhausted. You want to pass out. I came close a couple of times. But you're filled with something, that feedback that comes from the audience.

I'm a Gaga-ite.

I have no agenda - just to be loved.

Everybody calls me Big Man.