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.
DUKE ELLINGTONI 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.
DUKE ELLINGTONPeople do not retire. They are retired by others.
DUKE ELLINGTONA Satin Doll is a woman who is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.
DUKE ELLINGTONFate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.
DUKE ELLINGTONSomehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
DUKE ELLINGTONWhat does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
DUKE ELLINGTONSing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
DUKE ELLINGTONMusic, 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.
DUKE ELLINGTONJazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTONMusic is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
DUKE ELLINGTONI fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
DUKE ELLINGTONThe Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern’ art. What is more African than a Picasso?
DUKE ELLINGTONThere is no art when one does something without intention.
DUKE ELLINGTONIt’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
DUKE ELLINGTONI’m sure critics have their purpose, 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 he did.
DUKE ELLINGTONWithout a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
DUKE ELLINGTON