Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.
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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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
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There is no art when one does something without intention.
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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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A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
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If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!
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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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Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
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A Satin Doll is a woman who is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.
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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
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Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
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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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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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There is no art without intention.
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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
DUKE ELLINGTON






