Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
DUKE ELLINGTONI never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Simplicity is a most complex form.
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There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
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New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillacs, and beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven’t; there’s no proof of it.
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Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine.
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A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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My biggest kick in music -playing or writing- is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything?
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Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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I don’t believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the U.S.A. you are referring to categories again.
DUKE ELLINGTON