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.

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

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.

It isn’t where you came from, its where you’re going that counts.

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

A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.

Listening is more important than anything because that’s what music is. Somebody is playing something and you’re receiving it.

I’d solo on my guitar; then sing; then solo; then sing some more. one stopped when the other started. That way I felt a continuity, not a conflict, like a wheel that keeps turning. Both sounds – guitar and voice – were coming out of me, but they issued from different parts of my soul.

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.

I’m always looking for ways to develop as a Jazz artist, to find different ways of using my voice.

External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.

When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.

I try to practice with my life.

Man, you tell a story.

It doesn’t matter all that much. It’s just that when you’re playing, Stephane, you’ve got both Chaput and me backing you, but when I’m soloing I’ve only got one guitar behind me!

Start well and end well. The middle will look after itself.

I feel like….Music is the – it’s the answer. It’s the reason.

I’m always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.

Excessive reverence for the romantic illusion of original thought is the most fraudulent and destructive element in Jazz education.