Kanye West

I forgot better shit than you ever thought of.

Anyone who doesn’t give [his debut album, The College Dropout] a perfect score is lowering the integrity of the magazine

It was incredible because it was forced humility. Previously, I would’ve looked at humility as more of a negative thing.

On Jimmy Kimmel we had a great time having a dialogue. I’m reading that I was stumped by a question. Let me clarify the click bait. I wasn’t stumped. I wasn’t given a chance to answer the question.

It’s a time for the unconventional. I’m not a traditional thinker. I’m a non-conformist. So [Trump’s victory] relates to the non-conformist part of me.

How about dreaming out loud? How about feeling that something can happen to make the world better and inspire people? Is that OK for one second?

Jazz music grabs you to the point where it never lets you go until the very last breath.

When you want ’em you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em.

You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.

I don’t have a favorite song that I’ve written. But I do have a favorite song: ‘Always on My Mind,’ the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.

I’ve always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.

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 is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.

There’s so many ways you can hit one note.

Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.

It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.

I don’t really get nervous, I prepare. When the music messed up in the beginning, it tapped into my nerves and when you’re nervous and vulnerable, something special and something different can happen.

Anyone who understands Jazz knows that you can’t understand it. It’s too complicated. That’s what’s so simple about it.

I’ve sung a lot of emotional songs, but when you’re writing it’s very difficult to decide what to reveal.

So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It’s over; it’s on the record.