Bill Evans

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 went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.

Music should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise. It’s easy to rediscover part of yourself, but through art you can be shown part of yourself you never knew existed. That’s the real mission of art. The artist has to find something within himself that’s universal and which he can put into terms that are communicable to other people. The magic of it is that art can communicate to a person without his realizing it.

I always like people who have developed long and hard, particularly through introspection and a lot of dedication. I think that what they arrive at is, usually, deeper and more beautiful than the person who seems to have that ability and fluidity from the beginning.

You never master the instrument. You always just strive to get better.

To imitate someone is to insult them.

What I learned the most from Prince was putting art first, being creatively ambitious, and putting creativity at the forefront of what I do.

I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won’t come out.

Excessive reverence for the romantic illusion of original thought is the most fraudulent and destructive element in Jazz education.

What I can say is that for may years jazz musicians had to go to Europe, for instance, to be respected and to be sort of treated not in a discriminatory way. I don’t think there is anything controversial about me saying that. This is just a fact. …. Europeans really provided many venues over there and hailed the jazz artists, and a lot of musicians went over there and stayed over there for a long time. A lot of them moved over there, lived over there, and died over there.

I don’t believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.

One shouldn’t be in the habit of quoting oneself.

The hidden things, the subconscious that lies in the body and lets you know: You feel this, you play this.

If a song’s about something I’ve experienced or that could’ve happened to me it’s good. But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it. Because that’s what soul is all about.

I haven’t got a great jazz band and I don’t want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat’s among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking real jazz . . . It’s all in what you define as ‘real jazz.’ It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. A dozen colored bands have a better beat than mine. Our band stresses harmony.

Well, for me it’s – music is the instrument of life.

What are you going to do when you love music? You can’t stop.

It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz.

Music is an addiction.

People don’t want to suffer. They want to sound good immediately and this is one of the biggest problems.

You know at an early age if you have a talent for music.