Brian McKnight

I think I’ve tried to stay true to my music since the beginning. It’s kind of hard because of the access and technology but I just do what I do.

A fine timepiece is part of dressing like a gentleman. When I first made a little money, I bought my first watch which was a Rolex Daytona. It was just one of those things that said I was successful.

I’m creating music – it doesn’t matter if anyone else likes it.

I’m not thinking about what needs to be on the radio. I’m not thinking about anything other than – I’m just going to let this music come out of me and not have any sort of preconceived notion of what I should do. I’m just going to do it.

I think I’d have to say my favorite IWC. They have been around for so long and the craftsmanship is top notch. A watch maker that has been in business over 100 years has to know what they are doing.

I think social media has given everyone a voice. Social media makes everyone a celebrity on some level. I think that diminishes the power of an artist who bases their trade on their talent, that’s one of the downfalls. But the good thing is that you can connect with your fans all the time.

Sometimes it’s to your advantage for people to think you’re crazy.

Mozart tapped the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breathtaking rightness.

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

Let your life be your music and let your music be your life.

Change is always happening. That’s one of the wonderful things about Jazz music.

Man, all music is folk music. You ain’t never heard no horse sing a song, have you?

Anyone who doesn’t give [his debut album, The College Dropout] a perfect score is lowering the integrity of the magazine

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

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

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

What’s tied Jazz together is its foundation in the Blues, a reliance on group interplay and the unique phenomenon of spontaneous improvisation.

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

Les Paul was one of the great innovators of the early electric guitar, and he made some fantastic guitar records. To me, Les Paul is very much it.

Jazz is very much alive. Everywhere I go there’s a new generation of musicians playing Jazz music.

You can have the greatest player in terms of mastering an instrument and be yawning your head off.