Ron Carter

I felt a responsibility to present a viable alternative to the popular electric sound.

A good bassist determines the direction of any band.

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

I don’t like to read books. They muss up my mind.

Truth over Harmony.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

Blood banks are all closed; you can’t use others to keep you warm.

Life is a full-contact sport, and there’s a score up on the board.

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

I mean, if you degrade someone, you isolate them, you control them, you call them names, you demean them. That’s a horrible existence for people.

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is what happened on the banks.

Love is simple: It is waking up knowing you exist in a mind outside of your own. It is having one heart that carries two beats. It is you and me spoken in terms of us and we.

Possessions are always secondary, loved ones are all that matters.

You learn from a conglomeration of the incredible past — whatever experience gotten in any way whatsoever.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

My entire life can be described in one sentence. It didn’t go as planned and that’s OK.

One side of unhealthy relating is if you are always pursuing or always retreating.