I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
DUKE ELLINGTONJazz is a good barometer of freedom.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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There is no art when one does something without intention.
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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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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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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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It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line
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It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
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It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
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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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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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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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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!
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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
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Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
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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.
DUKE ELLINGTON