Chet Atkins

Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.

It was a great thrill to listen every night and hear him on NBC radio. Les played just as great then. And then later on, in the 1950s, Les Paul turned the whole world on to guitar. He’s just a terrific, flashy, tasty guitarist.

Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

Music is your experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.

It is this tendency to play with manic enthusiasm on every possible occasion that distinguishes the amateur Jazz musician from the professional.

Jazz music is collective creativity.

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

I think of guitar players in terms of doctors: you have the doctor for your heart, the cardiologist, then one that works on your feet, your leg. But I believe George Benson is the one that plays all over. To me, he would be the M.D. of them all.

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

I just remember always trying to emulate Dinah Washington, hanging out in my bedroom closet.

I was not prepared to play the role of singer in the camp of the warriors

If you want to make money in music, get into the band uniform business.

I’ve been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer.

I would say that a composer writes music to express and communicate and put down in permanent form certain thoughts, emotions and states of being. The resultant work of art should speak to the men and women of the artist’s own time with a directness and immediacy of communicative power that no previous art expression can give.

In order to be honest with myself, I have to reveal more of who I am. This is a part of the improv process.

Even if you have some brilliant jazz ideas, it’s going to be difficult to get them across unless you have 1-a distinctive sound or 2- a loud sound. These are musts.

Talk of God is most often in church. Is there a God outside of church? I hope so. But how should I know? How does anybody know?