Pat Metheny

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.

The beauty of Jazz is that it’s malleable. People address it to suit their own personalities.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

It is Jazz’s very nature to change, to develop and adapt to the circumstances of its environment.

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways.

Nothing else will ever capture the democratic process in sound as perfectly as Jazz.

A series of vibrations. What does it matter, the source of the catalyst?

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

I don’t know where Jazz is going. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.

Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet, put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying ‘yes.’

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

A melody is not merely something you can hum.

Jazz – it takes passion to make it happen!

Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.

It’s easy to play any musical instrument, just touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.

Music is interior decoration.

The fabulous places I’ve been, wonderful things that’ve happened, great people I’ve met ought to make a story.

All I play is truth and emotion.

Even now, at 82 years old, if I don’t learn something every day, you know what I think? It’s a day lost. Now, I don’t practice every day. I just take the guitar, swear at it. But I should be swearing at myself. But I fool with music. I’m doing something musically all the time. And my ears are wide open for anything I can hear.