Herbie Hancock

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

Being a musician is what I do, but it’s not what I am.

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

Miles’ sessions were not typical of anybody else’s sessions. They were totally unique.

It is people’s hearts that move the age.

Everybody did something. It was very entertaining. We had a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And there was no segregation, that I could see. I never saw any.

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.

Blow your life through your horn.

Players are coming from other backgrounds: rock, folk, ethnic music. It’s changing Jazz for the better.

Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.

During these years I began to feel an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations of the music-loving public and the living composer. It seemed to me that we composers were in danger of working in a vacuum.

They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

There’s always this sound out there that’s just a little beyond my reach and that just sort of keeps me going.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

There is nothing more stuntastic than rapping in front of an orchestra.

For a long time I wasn’t listening to music, to the rock and roll stuff on the radio, because it would cause me to get sweaty–it would bring back memories I didn’t want to know about, or I would get that feeling that I’m not alive ’cause I’m not making it. And if it was good, I hated it ’cause I wasn’t doing it. And if it was bad, I was furious ’cause I could’ve done it better…

Breathe…. breathe a lot!

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.

Jazz is a beautiful woman whose older brother is a policeman.

I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.