Ahmad Jamal

The quickest way to become troubled is to be concerned with what people are gonna say about your life and your work.

You don’t create things, you discover things.

Many fail to realize this great recording industry was built by so-called jazz artists. And at the other end of the spectrum, a base in European classical music as well.

You’ve got a big, big problem if you get caught up in what people say. If you’re gonna live for what people say, you might as well lay down and forget it. Because it doesn’t work that way.

I would like to be a scholar in whatever I do, a scholar is never finished, he is always seeking and I am always seeking.

The quickest way to become troubled is to be concerned with what people say about your work.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

I’ve always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn’t have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did.

Dizzy used to tell me I’m playing too hard. He’d say to not give everything. Miles told me that too.

The joy of music should never be interrupted by a commercial.

Improvisation is the most widespread of all musical activities. Why did so many people spend so long pretending it never happened?

Musically, I love to talk just off the top of my head and that’s what Jazz is all about.

You’re just as beautiful as you feel.

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

I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapy is in art.

I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.

After you’ve done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time.

I didn’t need to worry about keys, chords, melody if I had that emotion that brought tears and laughter to people’s hearts.

I’ll be writing songs till I die. There’s just no question.

If you must listen to bad music, please use headphones.

The audience should feel they are hearing the future, arriving just on time.