Bill Evans

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

Jazz isn’t a what, it’s a how.

Jazz is a mental attitude rather than a style. It uses a certain process of the mind expressed spontaneously through some musical instrument. I’m concerned with retaining that process.

Talent is cheap, and many talents treat themselves cheaply.

You give up your own personality when you imitate somebody.

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.

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

And then when I found my sound, it took me two and a half weeks to find my sound and when I did I pulled out all the stops, all the stops I could find.

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.

At times as a performer they segregated us in some of theatres.

If you can’t get your songs to people one way, you have to find another.

I’ve tried all my life to avoid copying. If I can’t be myself, there’s no point being in Jazz.

We may not be changing the world dramatically, but we’re improving it one note at a time.

I fell in love with Jazz when I was 12 listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of Jazz in New York on the radio.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

There’s only one thing that everyone in this world has in common: whether you want to love somebody and you want to be loved in return.

Musicians have the intimacy of bringing two people together and the aesthetic, romantic transference.

In my world, the first thing I reach for is the sound.

There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I haven’t yet done.

Jazzmen are our surrogates for the unpredictable, our paladins of constant change.

I am attracted to Jazz music for the idea of being in the moment and communicating to people spontaneously.