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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.

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

Death Hide Place Walk
I like any and all of my associations with music: writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Association Audience Listening Music Perspective Play
I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Limitation Myself Time
You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Bad Category Goodness Listening Stop
Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Beautiful Music Reflection
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Best Chance Problem Yourself
Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Creation Instinct Past Thinking
New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Hell Music Time
Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Alive Fans Himself Suspect
A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Financial Loss Musical Profit
There is no art when one does something without intention.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Art Intention
People do not retire. They are retired by others.
DUKE ELLINGTON

People Retirement
Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Creation Goodness Taste True
By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Association Kind Man Yourself
The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Himself Important Known Listening Musician
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.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Kind Time Wasted Worry Yourself

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.

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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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