Simplicity is a most complex form.
DUKE ELLINGTONThere is no art without intention.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
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On 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.
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Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
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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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New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
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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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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
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Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
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My 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.
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The artist must say it without saying it.
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Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the popular, or what was the In thing. Even today, it is very hard to brainwash a Canadian.
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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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I 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.
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If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!
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I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
DUKE ELLINGTON






