Michelle Obama

Being president doesn’t change who you are – it reveals who you are.

My daughters are the heart of my heart and the center of my world.

Courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

We can never be complacent and think that we’ve arrived now as women. Because I hear this from young women. Some of you young women who aren’t feeling the pains that many of our predecessors have felt – you think, well, there aren’t any problems, women’s rights, we’ve got this all figured out, I’m already equal, I’m good – I’m just like, oh, just you wait, you’ll feel it. So the work continues.

Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise.

I was probably 10 or 11 when I saw that, and sort of started thinking, ‘You know what? Marriage is an option. Having a family is an option. And going to school and getting your education and building your career is another really viable option that can lead to happiness and fulfillment.

The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.

I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live.

Jazz is a democratic musical form. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.

I don’t care about the rules, if I don’t break the rules at least 10x every song then I’m not doing my job.

Critics get a little carried away with what someone should have done, rather than what he did.

We’re more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don’t know which will go first; rock and roll or Christianity.

Creativity shouldn’t be following radio; it should be the other way around.

You can’t seperate modern jazz from rock or from rhythm and blues – you can’t seperate it. Because that’s where it all started, and that’s where it all come from – that’s where I learned to keep rhythm – in church.

Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens.

After the music is over it’s gone in the air. You can never capture it again.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

And then when I found my sound, it took me two and a half weeks to find my sound and when I did I pulled out all the stops, all the stops I could find.

I do Jazz, Blues, Country and so forth. I do them all like a good utility man.

Music is a calling that you must bring your best to, whether listening, practicing or performing.