Cecil Taylor

Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

I discovered very early that it wasn’t quite enough for me to imitate people.

You don’t have to be Picasso or Rembrandt to create something. The fun of it, the joy of creating, is way high above anything else to do with the art form.

If music is sound and came from silence, then silence is potentially greater than sound.

A melody is not merely something you can hum.

It became a kind of a game, to remember the things that had happened five minutes ago. I would start making notes about the things I was doing, on an instrument that was foreign to me, the guitar, so it was just a fun way of doing cognitive therapy. I was none the wiser to it until I began to improve and my ability to speak began to come back.

I have a lot of albums yet to do.

Music chooses her musicians.

If I don’t learn something new every day, it’s a day lost

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night, but differently each time.

Every day when I sit down to play, I learn something new.

Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.

Everybody has somebody that they patterned themselves after.

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.

There’s two things you can’t live without. Water and music.

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

It is better to be felt than to be heard.