Cecil Taylor

Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

I discovered very early that it wasn’t quite enough for me to imitate people.

Jazz standards are our contribution to music history.

Let my children have music.

I’m meant to be an artist who can stand on my own. That’s my place; that’s what I’m supposed to do.

Find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.

To work is to feel alive.

You have to understand the styles and it’s good to study those that came before us.

I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapy is in art.

You must own it to play it.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

If you want to make money in music, get into the band uniform business.

I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother’s aunt who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and a few others.

Jazz music has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativity and personal identity.

When Jazz broke through in England, I remember sneaking to listen on the radio much to my parent’s disapproval.

I’ve studied all my musical life, but learning is only good if you do something constructive with it.

The way I think about the practicing, it is my undercover work.