Andrés Segovia

I prefer no one to teach me. I prefer to swing on my own.

I’m not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don’t last.

Finally Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet. He put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying ‘yes.’

Jimmy (Wakely) told me, ‘I don’t want you to sound so much like Dinah Washington.’ So, I thought, ‘How can I get around this?’ And one of the people I really dug was Patti Page. So I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to sound like her.’ I actually did with a couple curly-cues thrown in for effect, but, that’s how I started getting away from the predominant Dinah influence, and getting my own style together.

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

I love it. When they stop imitating me then I’ll start wondering where I’m going wrong. Every day when I sit down to play, I learn something new.

You don’t chose your inspirations, they chose you.

We might as well swing boys, because Stravinsky cuts us all.

It’s easier to copy someone else than to find out how to avoid sounding like someone else.

I’m not playing for other musicians. We’re trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We’ll keep him happy.

If you don’t know what it is, don’t mess with it.

Don’t be a perfectionist… leave that to the classical musicians.

No, working is what will keep you alive.

I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.

I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.