John Coltrane

Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

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

The emotional reaction is all that matters.

I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.

Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.

Through Dizzy and Bird I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

I like people who have worked long and hard, developing through introspection and dedication.

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.

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

I don’t pop my cork for every man I see.

I listen to everything, I listen to all artists that come along.

We might as well swing boys, because Stravinsky cuts us all.

Jazz is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good – he’s rock’s #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us.

The louder they [the band] play the softer I sing.

You could go out and eat and come back and the note would still be playing.

It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

Jazz is not to be sliced into bites by mass marketing geniuses who assume we are mindless cattle.