Herbie Hancock

I’m always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

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

Life is not about finding our limitations, it’s about finding our infinity.

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.

You can cage the singer but not the song.

All that I’ve played, all that I’ve sung, I couldn’t have done any other way.

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.

Music has to be accessible.

By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

My role as a drummer is as a team player to enhance what is going on around me.

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel… and that’s what I’ve been doing all my life.

The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play.

The jazziest American contribution to the vocabulary of English is Jazz itself.

I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

In my world, the first thing I reach for is the sound.

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers.

I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing.

I worked hard learning harmony and theory when I was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s.