Miles Davis

Stop before you’re done.

For me, music and life are all about style

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

Do not fear mistakes, there are none.

Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

One of the problems of people who live with pain is that they spend the whole day thinking about it, and it’s exasperating. But even when I am having a bad moment and I can’t get myself together, I get on stage and for an hour or two the pain becomes super-small. It’s about controlling the mind, telling the pain to step aside. Music does that. It’s the most fantastic drug in the world.

After two takes you’re imitating yourself.

Jazz is very much alive. Everywhere I go there’s a new generation of musicians playing Jazz music.

When you are so strongly drawn to music, you can’t ‘not’ be a musician.

I am the sum total of everything that I have experienced musically.

I’m not playing for other musicians. We’re trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We’ll keep him happy.

To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren’t any.

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

Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.

I’m surprised Beyonce liked me. I met Beyonce!!

I am very aware that so little has happened to the electric guitar from the time that it was conceived to now; where there are so little changes made where there should be drastic changes made. If we were to put our heads together and start thinking about modern technology we would be much more advantaged with the electric guitar than we are. I think that we’ve been stagnant for many years.

They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

If I don’t learn something new every day, it’s a day lost

Instrumental music can spread the international language.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.