Bob Dylan

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

He not busy being born is busy dying.

Play it f**kin’ loud!

I’ve been up the mountain and I had a choice. Should I come down? So I came down. God said, Okay, you’ve been up on the mountain, now you go down. You’re on your own, free. Check in later, but now you’re on your own.

Just because you like my stuff doesn’t mean I owe you anything.

A lot of people can’t stand touring but to me it’s like breathing. I do it because I’m driven to do it.

I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

It’s always Jazz. You can put a new dress on her, a new hat, but no matter what kind of clothes she’s the same old broad.

Good Jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms and yells. Fine Jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great Jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of Jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.

I’m using the insides of sounds to move around in a very subtle way which, I think, ends up being inevitable.

If you’re gonna sing meaningful songs, you have to be committed to living a life that backs that up.

All of the technique doesn’t matter… only if the feeling is right.

Risk is at the heart of Jazz. Every note we play is a risk.

One of the problems of people who live with pain is that they spend the whole day thinking about it, and it’s exasperating. But even when I am having a bad moment and I can’t get myself together, I get on stage and for an hour or two the pain becomes super-small. It’s about controlling the mind, telling the pain to step aside. Music does that. It’s the most fantastic drug in the world.

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

Those who were seen dancing were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.

He knows I rip him off every day. He’s the godfather for me. Nobody can say they aren’t influenced by what Stevie Wonder has done.

Music always turns into music. As soon as I play a key, push a key down, there’s no theory any more. When I go and I hear a sound on the keyboard, all theories go out the window.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.

10% of musicians make 90% of the money, while the remaining 90% of musicians make the 10% that’s left.

It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.