I’m gonna live till I die.
You gotta love livin’, baby, ’cause dyin’ is a pain in the ass.
May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.
Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe I’m honest.
The more you play, the more you hear and the more you hear, the more you want to play.
What I look for in concert is a connection with the audience.
In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. ThatÂ’s a little bit too much.
Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live.
Jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.
Music used to be essential and meaningful, but now it’s disposable.
When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.
Sounds of daily life are musical. I try to absorb the intricacies of sounds as if I were listening to music.
The whole concept for the Yeezus album is that we’re not going to be using CDs in the future and since this is the last time we’re going to see it, this is an open casket for the CD.
Your humanity is your instrument.
The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.
You’ve got to learn your instrument.
Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.
You just sort of have to play the way you are.
True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.
