Keith Jarrett

Once we’re inside a tune, we can do anything with it.

I grew up with the piano. I learned its language as I learned to speak.

Jazz is one of the least learnable art forms.

I’m my own most merciless critic onstage.

Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it’s not etched in your system.

I cannot say what I think is right about Music. I only know the rightness of it.

I’d solo on my guitar; then sing; then solo; then sing some more. one stopped when the other started. That way I felt a continuity, not a conflict, like a wheel that keeps turning. Both sounds – guitar and voice – were coming out of me, but they issued from different parts of my soul.

I think you have to leave a lot to the imagination!

Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at Jazz.

A guitar is something you can hold and love and it’s never going to bug you. But here’s the secret about the guitar – it’s defiant. It will never let you conquer it. The more you get involved with it, the more you realize how little you know.

If you can’t play the blues, you might as well hang it up.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.

Sometimes there are no gigs, but the main thing is still the music.

I’ve seen myself on those lists of the 100 best guitarists, and if they think that I’m that good, thank them. Thank God for them. But I don’t think so.

You can’t listen to what people who aren’t musical have to say. When Anytime was released, I had bad reviews, and at first I was hurt. Your songs are like your children. You don’t want to hear, ‘Your kid is ugly.’ But I knew the record was good and it would sell.

If a jazz player is really playing, the classical player will have to respect him.

It’s not that you want to sing, it’s that you have to sing.

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

I really feel like I made it a great record. I really feel good about it. In this day and age to make a record that you say, ‘This is different,’ that’s a tough nut. I did it by accident but it got done. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know how to do it.

I never have any trouble playing anything I can think of. The trouble is thinking of what to play.