Ella Fitzgerald

I guess what everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved. And to know that you loved me for my singing is too much for me. Forgive me if I don’t have all the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

Don’t give up trying to do what you really want. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

The fabulous places I’ve been, wonderful things that’ve happened, great people I’ve met ought to make a story.

I sing like I feel.

I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.

It isn’t where you came from, its where you’re going that counts.

The way I look at it, they’re all part of my musical diary, and I can listen to any one of them and it will bring up memories of what was going on at that time.

From hard rhythms of Be-bop, the mellow harmonies of Cool, to atonal forays of Free and the Straight Ahead delivery of Modern, it’s all Jazz.

The emotional reaction is all that matters.

They said Bird played bebop, but Bird could still swing. I’ve heard a lot of guys play bebop, but they wasn’t swinging.

T-Bone was, to me, that sound of being in heaven.

Most jazz players work out their solos, at least to the extent that they have a very specific vocabulary.

It was in tune when I bought it.

If you must listen to bad music, please use headphones.

Music to me is like breathing. I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.

What kills me is that everybody thinks I like Jazz.

Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe I’m honest.

The extreme dynamic and percussive possibilities of an acoustic guitar amplified through a bridge pickup have, over many years of performing, informed not only the way I play, but the way I write and sing too. My guitar taught me to sing in textures, from the roundest lingering harmonic to the sharpest snap of a pulled string. Being a percussion instrument as well as a melodic instrument, my guitar also teaches me about the relationship between rhythm and melody. Portable. Did I mention it also taught me about being portable?

The Jazz Age became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children’s party taken over by the elders.

My role in society, or any artist or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

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.