It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
DUKE ELLINGTONIf it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!
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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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By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.
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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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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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There are two kinds of worries – those you can do something about and those you can’t. Don’t spend any time on the latter.
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
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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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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.
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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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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.
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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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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
DUKE ELLINGTON