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 ELLINGTONCritics 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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.
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There is no art when one does something without intention.
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I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
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Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
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I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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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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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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You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
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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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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!
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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
DUKE ELLINGTON