Hazel Scott

I’ll always write music. Whether I release a record, whether I let the public hear it or not, I’m always writing music.

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

The hidden things, the subconscious that lies in the body and lets you know: You feel this, you play this.

You can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, you’re working without any real feeling.

I would say that a composer writes music to express and communicate and put down in permanent form certain thoughts, emotions and states of being. The resultant work of art should speak to the men and women of the artist’s own time with a directness and immediacy of communicative power that no previous art expression can give.

I’d take my guitar and play on the streets. A gospel song would get me a pat on the head. But a blues would get me a dime. So you see why I stuck with the blues.

A wise man practices slowly; but a wiser man practices even slower.

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

The radio makes hideous sounds.

I wanted something very dense, something that would sustain long and more pieces of wood that would be soft, sweet, for more of a mellow sound.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

I sought some kind of freedom in music, in the promise of transcendence and the idea that the purity and the innocence of a mythical god could somehow deliver me from darkness.

A chimpanzee could learn what I do physically, but it goes way beyond that. When you play, you play life.

I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat.

Do not fear mistakes, there are none.