If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can’t be trusted.
MILES DAVISIf you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can’t be trusted.
MILES DAVISIf somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I’d spend it choking a white man. I’d do it nice and slow.
MILES DAVISWhat’s swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don’t have to ask anybody if that’s good music or not. You can always feel it.
MILES DAVISDon’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
MILES DAVISPlay what you know and then play above that
MILES DAVISI can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.
MILES DAVISIn high school I was best in music class on the trumpet, but the prizes went to the boys with blue eyes. I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn.
MILES DAVISFood makes my mind sluggish.
MILES DAVISCertain drummers drop time, and I like to play on top of the beat.
MILES DAVISThe thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
MILES DAVISI don’t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.
MILES DAVISI ain’t no entertainer, and ain’t trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician.
MILES DAVISDrummers – sometimes they play and they listen. And that little listen takes a speck away from the right tempo.
MILES DAVISI never thought that the music called “jazz” was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic.
MILES DAVISSometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.
MILES DAVISWhen 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.
MILES DAVIS