Selfishness can be a virtue. Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves.
DUKE ELLINGTONI 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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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My mother told me I was blessed, and I have always taken her word for it. Being born of – or reincarnated from – royalty is nothing Like being blessed. Royalty is inherited from another human being; blessedness comes from God.
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I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
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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.
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People do not retire. They are retired by others.
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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.
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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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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.
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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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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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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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There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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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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New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
DUKE ELLINGTON