Herbie Hancock

The true artform is being a human being.

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

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

But I have to be careful not to let the world dazzle me so much that I forget that I’m a husband and a father.

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

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

At times in my life the only place I have been happy is when I am on stage.

I don’t consider myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can’t develop any further.

I don’t like recording studios – except my own, which is just a little room above the garage.

Jazz music can relax, soothe and uplift the mind when you absorb it.

People will hire you and then tell you not to do what you were doing when they heard you.

Jazz is all about improvisation and it’s about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you’ll never do it this way twice. I’ve studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

I play the way I do cause it allows me to come up w/ the sickest sounds possible. That’s the point now isn’t it?

In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.

Jazz to me is a living music. It’s a music that since its beginning has expressed the feelings, the dreams, hopes, of the people.

I find my inspiration in myself.

I wrote “Pilot of My Destiny” because of my love of flying. The fact that my brother is a pilot inspired me to write it. I call him pilot. He calls me copilot.

When I achieved what I thought the musicians were trying to do, the sound sort of bloomed. When it’s right, everything is beautiful.

I’m meant to be an artist who can stand on my own. That’s my place; that’s what I’m supposed to do.

The way a band works is a metaphor for all sorts of collaborative and larger enterprises that people do.