Ken Burns

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It’s our great contribution to the arts.

Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.

By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of Jazz.

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

Your sound is you and what you really feel inside.

I am inclined to just write music and not worry about what people can or can’t do.

It’s not what they think, it’s about what’s best for the music.

Music is the most fantastic drug there is!

Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience.

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.

For me, there wasn’t a line between working and getting paid or simply playing for fun.

I’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.

Once you become predictable, no one’s interested anymore.

I think Ive done the best I could have done. But I keep wanting to play better, go further. There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I havent yet done. When I was younger I thought maybe Id reached that peak. But Im 86 now, and if I make it through to next month, Ill be 87. And now I know it can never be perfect, it can never be exactly what it should be, so you got to keep going further, getting better.

Start well and end well. The middle will look after itself.

She’s Dynamite’ was a 100 years ago, and I recorded that song because the company thought that it was a great song and it was hot. That was the beginning of rock n’ roll, and I guess they thought it would be a BB King version of rock n’ roll.

Well, for me it’s – music is the instrument of life.

I want a kick to my band, but I don’t want the rhythm to hog the spotlight.