“Always listen for what you can leave out.”

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.

I usually write from the rhythm section…If a drummer got a funky beat on some things – like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or a backbeat that’s even – I can write something.

A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it.

I don’t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.

It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.

I’ll play it first and figure out what it’s called later.

You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line… We’re just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.

The only reason to write a new song is because you’re tired of the old ones.

In other words, an instrument should be an extension of you; it’s supposed to sound like you – the way you walk, the way you dress, you know.

I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they’re still here and passing it on to others.

You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.

I’m not messing around with nobody’s woman. If I want a woman I go get her – you know what I mean?

I ain’t no entertainer, and ain’t trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician.

All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.

We are a company that lives and breathes a philosophy that’s centered on not only making sound business decisions but also personally and professionally finding ways to contribute to the well being of society.

Finishing a good book is like leaving a good friend.

I was the world’s ugliest baby. I have photos of my folks leaving the hospital with sacks over their heads… I asked my mother how to turn off the electric fan. She said ‘Grab the blade!

I think about my sons and the legacy I have to leave for them – and it always brings me back to reality.

I don’t leave home without my Skullcandy Crushers.

The miscegenation laws of the South only operate against the legitimate union of the races; they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women.

I’d have wasted a lot of time and trouble before I learned that the best way to take all people, black or white, is to take them for what they think they are, then leave them alone.

The most important thing of all is my parents were able to leave all four of their children better off than themselves. That story has a name, it’s called the American dream.