A goal is a dream with a finish line.
DUKE ELLINGTONIf anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
-
-
I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
My biggest kick in music -playing or writing- is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything?
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Yet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
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.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Critics have their purposes, and they’re supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what they did.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
DUKE ELLINGTON -
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.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
I’m sure critics have their purpose, and they’re supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what he did.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
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.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!
DUKE ELLINGTON -
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 ELLINGTON -
Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
There is no art without intention.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
New 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 ELLINGTON -
Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
People do not retire. They are retired by others.
DUKE ELLINGTON