Robert Schumann

To compose music, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.

Critics get a little carried away with what someone should have done, rather than what he did.

You can cage the singer but not the song.

I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn’t much like it at first.

We made records to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records. I still feel that way. I put out a record because I think it’s beautiful, not necessarily commercial.

What we hear is the quality of our listening.

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that’s when I was born.

All musicians stimulate each other. The vibrations get scattered around.

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

They’re not particular about whether you’re playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.

I’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like.

I want the music to connect to people; reach people every time I perform.

I was never interested in singing in the church or school. I was more interested in becoming a musician.

Ahhh – those Jazz guys are just makin’ that stuff up!

What a fool I am to think my breaking heart could kid the moon.

I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It’s time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It’s time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.