Miles Davis

You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.

Jazz music has got to have that thing. You have to be born with it. You can’t even buy it. If you could buy it, they’d have it at the next Newport festival.

I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused.

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

Stop before you’re done.

You don’t want to play like B. B. King. You want to be you. So what you do is listen to players you like, and try to “borrow” a little bit from each guy. You don’t try to sound exactly like the other guy, you just add the bits to your vocabulary. It’s like learning to read or write.

A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

You never master the instrument. You always just strive to get better.

When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.

Keep searching for that sound you hear in your head until it becomes a reality.

I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.

If you understood everything I say, you’d be me!

I guess what everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved. And to know that you loved me for my singing is too much for me. Forgive me if I don’t have all the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

Just ’cause I’ve forgotten more than I can play, doesn’t mean it’s not Improv.

Well if I could play like Wynton Marsalis, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.

If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I’ve also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of it.

If the bass plays the root, a pianist superimposes a Maj7 built on the 5th and the sax plays the 13th, will hot women notice?

Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: If you’re not feeling right, play a minor tune and it falls into place.