Van Morrison

You can’t go to the store and buy a good ear and rhythm.

Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.

It is people’s hearts that move the age.

Music is what I hear and something that I live by.

When I got pretty good I went on the road with a group. We starved.

A Jazz Diet will make you hipper, thinner, taller, smarter, richer, happier and more attractive to members of both sexes.

If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.

Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe I’m honest.

It doesn’t have to be happy music to be inspiring.

Jazz isn’t a what, it’s a how.

I’m my own most merciless critic onstage.

All that I’ve played, all that I’ve sung, I couldn’t have done any other way.

It’s part of what the blues does, to write about these things. JB Lenoir was the main one in this regard – he wrote about Korea, too, in fact. Songs that reflect these current situations – in his case, racial issues for the most part: in my case, what has happened to me, and I was in Korea.

I love it when people hear my music but can’t figure out what instrument I’m playing.