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?
DUKE ELLINGTONWithout a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
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Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
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I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
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If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original.
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There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it’s successful; if it doesn’t it has failed.
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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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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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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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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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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.
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Dancing is very important to people who play music with a beat. I think that people who don’t dance, or who never did dance, don’t really understand the beat. I know musicians who don’t and never did dance, and they have difficulty communicating.
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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