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To be a good improviser, you have to study composition as a parallel. Because what improvisation is, on a high level, is spontaneous composition.

I want to be an improviser, and I've worked very hard at that. It's an art. You don't just play whatever comes into your head; you have to be very deliberate about what you do.

Even if you're improvising, the fact that beforehand you know certain things will work helps you make those improvisations successful. It really helps to have a certain amount of knowledge about musical structure.

Improvisation is a compositional method.

When improvisation is properly applied, it is compositional thinking, sped way up.

You have to be able to fail with the improv. You have to not care.

I think that I can improv.

Improvising is wonderful. But, the thing is that you cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing. That's a kind of paradoxical thing about improvising.

I've never been good at improvising.

I love improv so much. Listening. I think that's the key. When you improvise, you put a lot of pressure on yourself to create, and to be generating information, and trying to be funny, but if you just listen to what's being said to you, and then react honestly, you generally get better results.