Artie Shaw Quotes

I can’t understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?

Somebody asked me once, ‘Do you think that swing will ever come back?’ And I said, ‘Do you think the 1938 Form will ever come back?’

Shoot for the moon. If you miss you’ll still end up in the stars.

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

There’s such a cynicism about the phrase ‘I laughed all the way to the bank.’ It’s as though money is what you’re doing, rather than playing music. If you’re playing a money game, why not get into banking?

No matter how carefully and assiduously and how deeply you bury shit, the American public will find it and buy it in large quantity, It’s true, absolutely true.

‘Swing’ is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a ‘swing band’ in music.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

Dance music-as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper… a windshield wiper that’s fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out-of-tune playing ‘Melancholy Baby’ and you’ve got dance music.

I can’t understand these guys who just have to have your autograph. I asked one of them ‘What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?’

I like the music. I love it and live it in fact, but for me the business part just plain stinks.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijuana, and will expire on cocaine.

I was really running a music school back then, because my band wasn’t making any money. I keep talking about money, because most people don’t understand the part of money in running a band.

An artist should write for himself and not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.