It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
DUKE ELLINGTONYou’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
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You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
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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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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 nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!
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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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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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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.
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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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Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
DUKE ELLINGTON