Les Paul

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.

Of the whole bunch of guys who play hollow body guitar, I think Herb Ellis has the most drive.

The guitar is just a wonderful instrument. It’s everything: a bartender, a psychiatrist, a housewife. It’s everything, but it’s elusive.

No, working is what will keep you alive.

When I got my first guitar my fingers wouldn’t go to the sixth string so I took off the big E and played with just five strings. I was only 6 or 7.

To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren’t any.

Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.

I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.

Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

Jazz goes into my coffee in the morning, in my wine at night.

The thing I always default to is that I’ll always be here to write songs.

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won’t come out.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it’s a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don’t listen.

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

When you begin to teach Jazz, the most dangerous thing is to teach style.

I love Jazz because it has the perfect balance of discipline and freedom.

Playing the guitar is like telling the truth – you never have to worry about repeating the same [lie] if you told the truth. You don’t have to pretend, or cover up. If someone asks you again, you don’t have to think about it or worry about it because there it is. It’s you.

I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.

I thank you in advance for the great round of applause I’m about to get.

Jazz music has got to have that thing. You have to be born with it. You can’t even buy it. If you could buy it, they’d have it at the next Newport festival.

I went through a struggle, and I really needed to get myself together and connect with my purpose, which is music.