Artie Shaw

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

Somebody asked me once, ‘Do you think that swing will ever come back?’ And I said, ‘Do you think the 1938 Form will ever come back?’

I can’t understand these guys who just have to have your autograph. I asked one of them ‘What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?’

I like the music. I love it and live it in fact, but for me the business part just plain stinks.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

Shoot for the moon. If you miss you’ll still end up in the stars.

A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other’s ideas.

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

Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at Jazz.

May your heart always be joyful. May your song always be sung.

Composing makes me feel like I’ve finally gotten all the way up the ladder as a musician.

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live.

We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.

When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.

A movie and a stage show are two entirely different things. A picture, you can do anything you want. Change it, cut out a scene, put in a scene, take a scene out. They don’t do that on stage.

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

Jazz is restless. It won’t stay put and it never will.

To play without passion is inexcusable.

Jazz music is collective creativity.

I never believed in a set routine. It should depend on how you feel, because you play what you feel.