Brian McKnight

I didn’t think my career would last this long, and it’s still going.

Music used to be essential and meaningful, but now it’s disposable.

I am a writer – that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist.

I was brought up to be a gentleman. That means you know how to walk, talk and dress the part.

I tend to lean on the side of pessimism and I wish I could be more optimistic. I wish I could be better at taking things for what they are – not analyzing them – but just going about my life.

I’m not sure if Donald Trump is the answer, but I do think that the departure from traditional politicians may be the answer. I’m not sure if he is, but I like the idea of getting away from career politicians.

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel not the way others think you should feel.

Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It’s like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won’t let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you’re allowed to sleep. It’s always in the middle of the night, or you’re half-awake or tired, when your critical faculties are switched off. So letting go is what the whole game is. Every time you try to put your finger on it, it slips away. You turn on the lights and the cockroaches run away. You can never grasp them…

I always liked the steel guitar. I also love the guys that play the bottleneck. But I could never do it; I never made it do what I want. So every time I would pick up the guitar, I ‘d shake my hand and trill it a bit. For some strange reason my ears would say to me that sounds similar to what those guys were doing. I can’t pick up the guitar now without doing it. So that’s how I got into making my sound. It was nothing pretty. Just trying to please myself. I heard that sound.

I don’t like to look back because the whole point in Jazz is doing it now.

Miles told me not to use vibrato because when you get old, you’re going to shake anyway.

Jazz is not gonna be a dinosaur and stay around in one form.

To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument.

It’s not what they think, it’s about what’s best for the music.

Jazz music has got to have that thing. You have to be born with it. You can’t even buy it. If you could buy it, they’d have it at the next Newport festival.

If you’re going to make a mistake, make it loud so everybody else sounds wrong.

Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

Dog spelled backward is God. That’s pretty heavy.

The main thing is you want to emote.

I’ve been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer.