John Coltrane

I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.

Being so inescapably a part of it, I’ll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels and that’s too bad.

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

When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.

You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.

The emotional reaction is all that matters.

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.

Spontaneously composed music is a counterpoint that has its own rules based on a natural order and intuitive logic.

Jazz music is the real deal.

Look for the one who’s not smiling and play to that person. Once you’ve got that person, you’ve got the whole club.

Jazz can only enhance the Classical side and Classical can only enhance the Jazz side.

Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking… The new inventive phrases we make up to describe things – all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play.

When there was vinyl, I just loved opening a record and smelling that wonderful smell.

Nothing is out of the question for me. I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light…Then I’m grateful.

Jazz stands for freedom.

Composing makes me feel like I’ve finally gotten all the way up the ladder as a musician.

One of the things I like about Jazz, kid, is I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Do you?

If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

Jazz has such great feeling and emotional content it really doesn’t require technical understanding.

Notes are expensive… spend them wisely!