Dave Brubeck

I prefer no one to teach me. I prefer to swing on my own.

No person in their right mind would want to put their family through what I’ve had to put my family through.

Don’t be a perfectionist… leave that to the classical musicians.

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.

I never wanted this kind of life that I’m still living.

Get out there and improvise and take chances and don’t be a perfectionist.

For me, I started on a Les Paul and went through years of playing other guitars and just came back full circle to what was more natural to me.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

We didn’t have any segregation at the Cotton Club. No. The Cotton Club was wide open, it was free

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

Leo wanted me to be partners with him – for it to be the Fender guitar: the Les Paul Fender. When he approached me with the idea, he brought over a guitar and he gave it to me and I have it here. And I thought, if I’m gonna do this I’m going to go with the biggest company in the world: Gibson. Why should I fool around with some guy who is not a musician – I should go to the Gibson people.

A great thing about being a musician is you don’t stop until the day you die.

So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.

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

You’re just a little too hip for the room. It’s not good to be too hip because two hips make an ass.

I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music.

[on Django Reinhardt] By far the most astonishing guitar player ever … Django was quite superhuman, there’s nothing normal about him as a person or a player

If a Jazz musician plays someone else’s song, he has a responsibility to make a distinct and original statement.

The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

It angers me how scholars associate the blues strictly with tragedy.