“We’re not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got ’em, so they can keep ’em.”

We don’t play to be seen. I’m addicted to music, not audiences.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

I like Stan [Getz], because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies – other people can’t get nothing out of a song, but he can, which takes a lot of imagination.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.

I usually write from the rhythm section…If a drummer got a funky beat on some things – like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or a backbeat that’s even – I can write something.

A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it.

I don’t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.

It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.

I’ll play it first and figure out what it’s called later.

You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line… We’re just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.

The only reason to write a new song is because you’re tired of the old ones.

In other words, an instrument should be an extension of you; it’s supposed to sound like you – the way you walk, the way you dress, you know.

I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they’re still here and passing it on to others.

You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.

But if a mirror ever makes you sad you should know that it does not know you.

Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.

I am sad about the things I did to make you want me.

She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.

For all the happiness mankind can gain Is not in pleasure, but in rest from pain.

How sad it is that you have become something I need to recover from.

Songs are as sad as the listener.