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 ELLINGTONI 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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
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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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It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
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I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
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If 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.
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The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
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The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he.
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Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
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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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Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
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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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Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
DUKE ELLINGTON