David Sanborn

You never get it figured out. You just keep playing.

You’ve got to be willing to put stuff on the line, otherwise it doesn’t have much meaning.

Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized.

The more you play, the more you hear and the more you hear, the more you want to play.

Too many young musicians today want to win polls before they learn their instruments.

For me, the Les Paul is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll guitar of all time. If you’re not playing a Gibson guitar and you’re playing this kind of music, whether it’s punk, metal or anything grounded in rock ‘n’ roll, you’re not really doing it right. I don’t think professionally I’d every play anything else. Gibson, thank you for making greatest guitars ever.

Get out there and improvise and take chances and don’t be a perfectionist.

Jazz music today is from the head and not the heart.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

Jazz is a sideways glance at music. It’s like being an architect, knowing the basis of design but understanding that the façade can be whatever you dream. I’m a free person. I don’t want to be tied down.

I have music inside me and I’m very lucky to be able to play music and that’s the way that I try to do it.

Trios offer simple instrumentation, but the orchestral possibilities are so profound.

Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.

I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

10% of musicians make 90% of the money, while the remaining 90% of musicians make the 10% that’s left.

I bought my first electric guitar when I moved to Memphis; a Gibson with a DeArmond pickup which I used with a small Gibson amplifier.

It’s either hip or it ain’t.

You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

I find my inspiration in myself.