Brian Lynch

You can be beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than most of your usual ideas.

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

Art should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise.

The guitar chose me.

Jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

I’m always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.

I think we musicians are emissaries. Every time we go before the public, we’re there to make converts.

If a player is pushing their ability, a certain amount of failure is inevitable. Maybe even desirable.

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

When I got started in New York, if you were different from Miles and Dizzy it was very difficult.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

There is no truer truth obtainable by man than comes of music.

The problem is that a lot of the blues stations are late on Saturday night, and like a lot of people, I ain’t no vampire!

The blues was bleeding the same blood as me. The blues didn’t have to explain the mystery of pain that I felt; it was there in the songs and voices of singers like Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson, in the cries of their guitars.

You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.