Thelonious Monk

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

Play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing even if it does take them 15, 20 years.

If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord.

I find my inspiration in myself.

I say, ‘Play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing – even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years’.

I always wanted to play the piano, and jazz appealed to me.

The first time I went to Paris, it just felt like I was home. I didn’t question it.

You usually can’t tell what’s inspiring until you look back on it.

Don’t settle for style. Succeed in substance.

There is a time where you’re beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than your usual ideas.

My improvisations are a beguiling mixture of the vertical and the horizontal.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness.

If you got up on the bandstand at Minton’s and couldn’t play, you might get your ass kicked.

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.

You’ve got to be willing to put stuff on the line, otherwise it doesn’t have much meaning.

..I wanted to create music that was so different that my mother could tell me from anyone else.

I look for a deep, gutty feelin’ in a guitar tone. I don’t use picks. People ask, “How you get that?” It’s just there. There’s a lot of people try to play real fast chords-da da da da da-that ain’t the hard, solid blues. It’s synthetic. It has not feeling to it. You sit down and play some funky, funky guitar. Take your time! Don’t rush it. Just let it come flowing through you. I can play guitar so funky, it’ll bring teardrops to your eyes.

Find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.

I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player and a special award in 1961 for quietness.

Inspiration grows into full-scale creation through persistence and imagination.