Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
DUKE ELLINGTONLove is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
DUKE ELLINGTONIf you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!
DUKE ELLINGTONThere is no art without intention.
DUKE ELLINGTONYou’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
DUKE ELLINGTONI don’t need time, I need a deadline.
DUKE ELLINGTONEveryone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
DUKE ELLINGTONNew music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
DUKE ELLINGTONNew 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.
DUKE ELLINGTONI fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
DUKE ELLINGTONMy mother told me I was blessed, and I have always taken her word for it. Being born of – or reincarnated from – royalty is nothing Like being blessed. Royalty is inherited from another human being; blessedness comes from God.
DUKE ELLINGTONI 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 ELLINGTONI merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
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 ELLINGTONMusic is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
DUKE ELLINGTONPlaying ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
DUKE ELLINGTONSing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
DUKE ELLINGTON