Herbie Hancock

I try to practice with my life.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

I try stuff. I synthesize what’s of value with some of the other things I have at my disposal.

I think I was supposed to play Jazz.

The true artform is being a human being.

It is people’s hearts that move the age.

You explore beautiful songs and create your own interpretation of them.

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.

Master your instrument, master the music and then forget all that and just play.

Anyone who understands Jazz knows that you can’t understand it. It’s too complicated. That’s what’s so simple about it.

I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street – you live in Time Square, you know how they do it – they would bunch up. And they would always compliment me on gospel tunes, but they would tip me when I played blues.

If you take the time and your talent is real, it will last.

To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren’t any.

People always ask, “Why jazz?” and I’m like “Why not?” It’s kind of like asking Seurat, “Why so many dots?” I imagine if you asked Bjork, “Why the Tibetan bells?” She’d probably be like “That’s just what I heard.” It’s the same thing. This is just the way I see music.

Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn’t have.

For me, the Les Paul is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll guitar of all time. If you’re not playing a Gibson guitar and you’re playing this kind of music, whether it’s punk, metal or anything grounded in rock ‘n’ roll, you’re not really doing it right. I don’t think professionally I’d every play anything else. Gibson, thank you for making greatest guitars ever.

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time!

All of the technique doesn’t matter… only if the feeling is right.

Women have not been socialized to play drums. It’s not natural for us to hit thing.

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.