People do not retire. They are retired by others.
DUKE ELLINGTONPeople do not retire. They are retired by others.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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My biggest kick in music -playing or writing- is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything?
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New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
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Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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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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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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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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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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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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Every man prays in his own language.
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Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in 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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There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
DUKE ELLINGTON