Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
DUKE ELLINGTONNow I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
DUKE ELLINGTONIt’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
DUKE ELLINGTONOn becoming more acquainted with the word of the Bible, I began to understand so much more of what I had been taught, and of what I had learned about life and about the people in mine.
DUKE ELLINGTONIt don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
DUKE ELLINGTONNew music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
DUKE ELLINGTONEveryone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
DUKE ELLINGTONProblems are chances for us to do our best.
DUKE ELLINGTONThere is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!
DUKE ELLINGTONArt is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.
DUKE ELLINGTONYet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.
DUKE ELLINGTONSimplicity is a most complex form.
DUKE ELLINGTONEvery man prays in his own language.
DUKE ELLINGTONI like any and all of my associations with music: writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.
DUKE ELLINGTONYou’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
DUKE ELLINGTONThere are two kinds of worries – those you can do something about and those you can’t. Don’t spend any time on the latter.
DUKE ELLINGTONI don’t need time, I need a deadline.
DUKE ELLINGTON