Louis Armstrong

If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.

There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.

You blows who you is.

Man, all music is folk music. You ain’t never heard no horse sing a song, have you?

You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means.

Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.

People involve themselves with the superficiality of Jazz without digging for its soul.

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.

There’s always this sound out there that’s just a little beyond my reach and that just sort of keeps me going.

You compose because you want to somehow summarize in some permanent form your most basic feelings about being alive, to set down some sort of permanent statement about the way it feels to live now, today.

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.

Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God.

Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

I’m trying to make music a sensual expression, not and academic experiment.

Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

It’s Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, you know. They got a musical mind together and uh, you can’t explain it.

You can’t sing about love unless you know about it.

This guitar is such a pal. It’s a psychiatrist. It’s a doggone bartender. It’s a housewife. This guy is everything. Whenever I find that I’ve got a problem, I’ll go pick my guitar up and play. It’s the greatest pal in the whole world.