Bill Evans

You can’t explain Jazz to anyone without losing the experience because it’s feeling, not words.

I like people who have worked long and hard, developing through introspection and dedication.

I’m… a rather simple person with a limited talent and perhaps a limited perspective.

Words are the children of reason and therefore can’t translate the feeling of Jazz because they’re not part of it.

Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.

Everyone is working who should be.

If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes, take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball. So we want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing.

Sounds of daily life are musical. I try to absorb the intricacies of sounds as if I were listening to music.

If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterward.

Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.

A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.

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.

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

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

Our music artistry should not be disconnected from our lives or ourselves.

I am the sum total of everything that I have experienced musically.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

First of all, I never strive for identity. That’s something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually.

I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn’t much like it at first.

Too many young musicians today want to win polls before they learn their instruments.

I’m an interpreter of stories. When I perform it’s like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.