Miles Davis

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

Music is an addiction.

It’s always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there and I don’t question it.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.

Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.

I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later.

There’s a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There’s also happiness to it if you want to hear it.

Jazz is a work in progress. We’ll be defining traditions in Jazz for 200-300 years.

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales. I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton… oh, there’s many more! I wouldn’t want to be like them, you understand, but I’d like to be equal, if you will.

I can count on one hand the number of instrumental hits there have been over the last 10 years.

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

If you dig it, do it. If you dig it a lot, do it again.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

T-Bone was, to me, that sound of being in heaven.

I started to like blues, I guess, when I was about 6 or 7 years old. There was something about it, because nobody else played that kind of music.

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

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.

Jazz has always been a man telling the truth about himself.

We may not be changing the world dramatically, but we’re improving it one note at a time.

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?

I can play all I know in eight bars.