George Carlin

Hobbies cost money but interests are free

I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed!

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

Are people more violently opposed to fur rather than leather because its much easier to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs?

The more you play, the more you hear and the more you hear, the more you want to play.

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one’s own.

The great jazz instrumentalists taught me how to sing and interpret a song. they showed me how a horn can have as much personality as an actor.

Jazz is a work in progress. We’ll be defining traditions in Jazz for 200-300 years.

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

It’s like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something.

When the music changes, so does the dance.

A musician starting out today should get a great teacher and learn all there is to know about the instrument.

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it… for two days, the critics know it… three days, the public knows it.

Unless I really loved it and felt really passionate about it, I would just kind of abort the song and start a new one.

They’re not particular whether you’re playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.

Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: If you’re not feeling right, play a minor tune and it falls into place.

I am very aware that so little has happened to the electric guitar from the time that it was conceived to now; where there are so little changes made where there should be drastic changes made. If we were to put our heads together and start thinking about modern technology we would be much more advantaged with the electric guitar than we are. I think that we’ve been stagnant for many years.

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That’s when I was born.

They told me to play what I felt. Hey, I’m a Jazz musician, that’s what I do.