From a 1987 interview With Penn State professor Michael Jarrett:

I always prefer musicians that play with me to play independent of myself but with me…. To me, human existence exists on a multiple level, not just on a two-dimensional level, not just having to be identified with what you do and what you say. Those things are the results of what people see and hear that you do. But the human beings themselves are living on a multiple level. That’s how I have always wanted musicians to play with me: on a multiple level. I don’t want them to follow me. I want them to follow themselves, but to be with me.