Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
DUKE ELLINGTONLove is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven’t; there’s no proof of it.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
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I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
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I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
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People do not retire. They are retired by others.
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New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillacs, and beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.
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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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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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The Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern’ art. What is more African than a Picasso?
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Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
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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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Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
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Every man prays in his own language.
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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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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.
DUKE ELLINGTON






