John Coltrane

Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

Through Dizzy and Bird I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.

The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.

I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.

If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterward.

I never heard of a Jazz musician who retired. You love what you do, so what are you going to do… play for the walls?

I’m going to make music out of whatever style it is, being true to the artform itself.

I have been doing music all my life so everyday when I get up I expect music will be part of it.

I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.

Don’t give up trying to do what you really want. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

I like people who have worked long and hard, developing through introspection and dedication.

I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man.

We never play anything the same way once.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.

You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused.