Diane Schuurs

I was determined to succeed in what I loved to do. I wasn’t going to let my disability stand in my way.

[on Frank Sinatra] He was a compassionate guy. He loved to have fun. He had a movie theatre in his house. We munched on popcorn and watched movies together.

Maybe the best is yet to come, but I’ve already had the best.

I try to just be grateful for what I have, and not [focus on] the things that I don’t have.

I was always exposed to music. Mom and dad would have the radio on constantly.

Jimmy (Wakely) told me, ‘I don’t want you to sound so much like Dinah Washington.’ So, I thought, ‘How can I get around this?’ And one of the people I really dug was Patti Page. So I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to sound like her.’ I actually did with a couple curly-cues thrown in for effect, but, that’s how I started getting away from the predominant Dinah influence, and getting my own style together.

If you want to make money in music, get into the band uniform business.

Ah music… a magic beyond all we do here!

Jazz? has no boundaries.

Jazz musicians are the only workers who will put in a full shift for pay and then go somewhere else and continue to work for free.

Jazz Improvisation means that practice is not as straightforward as it would be when you simply have a score to play.

As long as musicians have passion for spontaneity and creating something that’s never been before, Jazz will flourish.

Why Jazz? This is just the way I see music.

However it goes, I’ll just keep playing. That’s where the basic satisfaction is at.

Of course there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are.

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

Musicians need enough experience to develop a vocabulary.

The way I think about the practicing, it is my undercover work.

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.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.