Louis Armstrong

What we play is life.

Not too slow, not too fast. Kind of half-fast.

You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means.

There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.

Never play anything the same way twice.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it… for two days, the critics know it… three days, the public knows it.

I think Ive done the best I could have done. But I keep wanting to play better, go further. There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I havent yet done. When I was younger I thought maybe Id reached that peak. But Im 86 now, and if I make it through to next month, Ill be 87. And now I know it can never be perfect, it can never be exactly what it should be, so you got to keep going further, getting better.

Today Jazz music is performed and listened to by people of all ethnicity, backgrounds, ages and creeds.

Practice 15 or 20 years and then it comes out spontaneously.

Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.

Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands.

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

I was always exposed to music. Mom and dad would have the radio on constantly.

I was not prepared to play the role of singer in the camp of the warriors

If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

Jazz is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

They told me to play what I felt. Hey, I’m a Jazz musician, that’s what I do.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands …If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.

It’s true I’ve always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

My version of Georgia became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching.