Ornette Coleman

I don’t know what they’re thinking about. Just because someone says, ‘I like what you do’ or something: They might like it today and tomorrow they might not. I’ve had that experience with record companies.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

The human being receives the pleasure from music, not from the argument over what it is.

Musicians tell me, if what I’m doing is right, they should never have gone to school.

I asked my mother could I have an instrument. She said, ‘Well if you go out and save your money.’ So I went and got – I made me a shine box. I went out and started shining shoes, and I’d bring whatever I made.

I didn’t need to worry about keys, chords, melody if I had that emotion that brought tears and laughter to people’s hearts.

Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.

You have to pack as much as you can in an hour or 70 minutes. This time around it was 15 songs, so it was a challenge to get them all the right length so you could get them all on.

A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.

Count don’t do nothin’. But it sure sounds good.

Jazzmen are our surrogates for the unpredictable, our paladins of constant change.

Jazz stresses less on technical exhibitionism and much more on emotional content.

I’m meant to be an artist who can stand on my own. That’s my place; that’s what I’m supposed to do.

I’m not a star. I’m just backing up the cats.

Jazz is not to be sliced into bites by mass marketing geniuses who assume we are mindless cattle.

For me, the main thing is spontaneity and taking chances.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

Everyone is working who should be.

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