There is no art when one does something without intention.
DUKE ELLINGTONPeople do not retire. They are retired by others.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
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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.
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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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Yet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.
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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the popular, or what was the In thing. Even today, it is very hard to brainwash a Canadian.
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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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People do not retire. They are retired by others.
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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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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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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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Critics have their purposes, 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 they did.
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The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.
DUKE ELLINGTON