Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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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It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
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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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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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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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Selfishness can be a virtue. Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves.
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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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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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There is no art without intention.
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Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
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Of the One O’Clock Lab Band after hearing their performance, and sitting in with them at the White House: “I wish it were mine”.
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The Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern’ art. What is more African than a Picasso?
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What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
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Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
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I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
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The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.
DUKE ELLINGTON