Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. ‘Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it’s done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.’
QUINCY JONESI learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you’re supposed to listen twice as much as you talk.
More Quincy Jones Quotes
-
-
Hell, nobody knows where jazz is going to go. There may be a kid right now in Chitlin Switch, Georgia, who is going to come along and upset everybody.
QUINCY JONES -
My earliest memories are being pinned to a fence with a switchblade.
QUINCY JONES -
I was the most subtle person in the world.
QUINCY JONES -
I’m just a musician and a record producer.
QUINCY JONES -
Billy Strayhorn wrote Multicolored Blue. Billy to me is the boss of the arrangers.
QUINCY JONES -
The act of multitrack recording is the act of arranging.
QUINCY JONES -
A person’s age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.
QUINCY JONES -
It’s easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play.
QUINCY JONES -
My son is a hip-hop producer.
QUINCY JONES -
Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I’m needed by someone. As long as you have that, you’re healthy.
QUINCY JONES -
Excellence isn’t an act, it’s a habit.
QUINCY JONES -
Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing.
QUINCY JONES -
I don’t deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn’t deserve that, either. So I’ll keep it.
QUINCY JONES -
After every war, there was a significant change in the music, and I can understand how that happened. If you participate in protecting the country, you think you can be part of it, but you come back home and it’s worse than ever.
QUINCY JONES -
What happens when you get a big break and you haven’t prepared yourself? That becomes the biggest mistake you’ve ever made. I see it happen all the time.
QUINCY JONES -
I don’t remember feeling love.
QUINCY JONES -
I’m a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.
QUINCY JONES -
The relationship with a producer and an artist is really special. It’s got to be love and respect, amazing mutual respect for each other, because that’s what makes a good record.
QUINCY JONES -
A song should have all the color and beauty of every rose.
QUINCY JONES -
When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out.
QUINCY JONES -
Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.
QUINCY JONES -
A lot of the guys were like that – Oscar Pettiford – they just took me under their wing, and that’s why I automatically help young people. I just love it, because they did that for me.
QUINCY JONES -
I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.
QUINCY JONES -
Did you know you would become as successful as you have? Hell, no. But you know what? You were prepared, baby.
QUINCY JONES -
I improvised my life along the way – I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.
QUINCY JONES -
Whenever a woman would come too close, I would cut her off. Part of that was vindictive – but that was totally subconscious.
QUINCY JONES