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.
DUKE ELLINGTONOf the One O’Clock Lab Band after hearing their performance, and sitting in with them at the White House: “I wish it were mine”.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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There is no art without intention.
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Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It’s not an occupation or profession, it’s a compulsion.
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
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There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
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People do not retire. They are retired by others.
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Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.
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New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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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.
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There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it’s successful; if it doesn’t it has failed.
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It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line
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It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
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Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
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I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
DUKE ELLINGTON