Ella Fitzgerald

Don’t give up trying to do what you really want. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

I’m very shy, and I shy away from people. But the moment I hit the stage, it’s a different feeling I get nerve from somewhere; maybe it’s because it’s something I love to do.

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.

When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

I’ll play it first and tell you what it is afterwards.

I think you have to leave a lot to the imagination!

Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.

I don’t do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn’t care less. If it sells one, it sells one.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

Music must be an innovation.

I don’t believe music can be free unless it has something to be free from.

My singing evolved with a feeling of intense relaxation, always using my diaphram and breathing specifically through my nose.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

The reward for playing Jazz is playing Jazz.

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

I don’t know what they’re thinking about. Just because someone says, ‘I like what you do’ or something: They might like it today and tomorrow they might not. I’ve had that experience with record companies.

As long as I can say what it is that I need to say, then I’ll fit whatever I’m trying to say around a melody.

In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds.

You never master the instrument. You always just strive to get better.