Herbie Hancock

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

Music is the tool to express life – and all that makes a difference.

It is people’s hearts that move the age.

I try to practice with my life.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

It’s not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

Use every distraction as an object of meditation and they cease to be distractions.

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help: the rest is cruelty, not justice.

Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

If people misunderstand you, do not worry…it is your voice that they hear, but what goes through their mind is…their own thoughts.

A genius can never expect to have a good time anywhere, if he is a genuine article, but America is about the last place in which life will be endurable at all for an inspired writer of any kind.

As long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it.

The thirst for adventure is the vent which Destiny offers; a war, a crusade, a gold mine, a new country, speak to the imagination and offer swing and play to the confined powers.

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.