Kanye West

I believe ‘ye’ is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible it means ‘you’.

Ask a boxer: In the third round, when he hit you from the side on your ear, how did that specifically feel? You wouldn’t ask a boxer that. Because you know they’re there to fight. Meaning now you know I’m here to fight. I’m here to fight for the re-education of what celebrity is.

Ever since the Taylor Swift moment, it’s never been the same – the connection with radio.

People say you can’t please everyone all the time. I don’t believe that. I think you can. I’m not like, ‘Oh I’m Kanye West.’ I’m like, ‘Oh you don’t like it? Oh wow!’ To the point where I know you have to like it.

People couldn’t give an F about how many cars you got any more. It’s about the way the music sounds, where you’re going, the experience you’re going to hanging out with your friends, the type clothes that you’re wearing – all of that’s art.

We’re numb. We’re numb to 500 kids getting killed in Chicago last year. We’re numb that there were dozens of police shootings in the beginning of July. We’re numb to places on the earth where we don’t live. Our life is OK, but it’s OK for other people’s lives to not be OK.

I’ve always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijuana, and will expire on cocaine.

I don’t care much about music. What I like is sounds.

I just remember always trying to emulate Dinah Washington, hanging out in my bedroom closet.

I would like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age.

Jazz has such great feeling and emotional content it really doesn’t require technical understanding.

He almost adds a Chet-like sound to it.

Jazz music can relax, soothe and uplift the mind when you absorb it.

The Blues? It’s the mother of American music. That’s what is is – the source.

A guy is influenced by hundreds of people and things, and all show up in his work. To fasten on any one or two is ridiculous. I will say one thing, though. Lennie Tristano’s early records impressed me tremendously. Tunes like ‘Tautology,’ ‘Marshmallow,’ and ‘Fishin’ Around.’ I heard the fellows in his group building their lines with a design and general structure that was different from anything I’d ever heard in jazz.

I haven’t got a great jazz band and I don’t want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat’s among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking real jazz . . . It’s all in what you define as ‘real jazz.’ It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. A dozen colored bands have a better beat than mine. Our band stresses harmony.

With songwriting I spend a lot of time living life, accruing all these experiences, journaling, and then by the time I get to the studio I’m teeming with the drive to write.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

This guitar is such a pal. It’s a psychiatrist. It’s a doggone bartender. It’s a housewife. This guy is everything. Whenever I find that I’ve got a problem, I’ll go pick my guitar up and play. It’s the greatest pal in the whole world.

For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.