George Shearing

When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I’d play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.

There is only 1 difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.

Truth exists in art.

Make the best of every moment. We’re not evolving. We’re not going anywhere.

The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.

Playing with freedom can only come after a certain amount of foundational study.

This type of soul, this type of art takes a while to cook. It’s like when my wife cooks for me and I always ask for greens. She never wants to cook the greens because they take three hours to cook.

I don’t want to put too many boxes on it because the work speaks louder than words.

The Japanese have a wonderful sense of design and a refinement in their art. They try to produce beautiful paintings with the minimum number of strokes.

Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.

It is unquestionably true that the need for art is not created by economic conditions. But neither is the need for food created by economics. On the contrary, the need for food and warmth creates economics.

There is no art without intention.

Art is self expression. If you are expressing someone else’s personality, that is not art.

They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.

MoMA is doubling its space, and I decided to raise the money for it.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.