Nat King Cole

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

If I could read it, I could play it.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you’ve got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

I’m a musician at heart, I know I’m not really a singer. I couldn’t compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it.

Oh, my darling, it’s incredible, that someone so unforgettable should think I am unforgettable, too.

The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of their instrument.

Dizzy used to tell me I’m playing too hard. He’d say to not give everything. Miles told me that too.

I don’t care for the music when they’re talking bad about women because I think women are God’s greatest gift to the planet – I just like music.

Sound is the first thing that we tune into.

When Bird came on the scene, it was shocking as in the Bible: everything was dark and then there was light.

Canada has a passive-aggressive culture, with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.

We quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

You can make a saxophone into an electric organ; you can do everything with it.

Jazz and love are the hardest things to describe from rationale.

If you want to make money in music, get into the band uniform business.

She’s Dynamite’ was a 100 years ago, and I recorded that song because the company thought that it was a great song and it was hot. That was the beginning of rock n’ roll, and I guess they thought it would be a BB King version of rock n’ roll.

You explore beautiful songs and create your own interpretation of them.

I call myself a blues singer, but you ain’t never heard me call myself a blues guitar man.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you’ve got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

Rather than say I play Jazz, I simply say I play music.