Diane Schuurs

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

I try to just be grateful for what I have, and not [focus on] the things that I don’t have.

I wrote “Pilot of My Destiny” because of my love of flying. The fact that my brother is a pilot inspired me to write it. I call him pilot. He calls me copilot.

Maybe the best is yet to come, but I’ve already had the best.

I’ve already done so much. The rest is just gravy, it’s like frosting on the cake

Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz had been friends of mine, and I wanted to pay tribute to them.

I am attracted to Jazz music for the idea of being in the moment and communicating to people spontaneously.

If you got up on the bandstand at Minton’s and couldn’t play, you might get your ass kicked.

Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel.

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.

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

We made records to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records. I still feel that way. I put out a record because I think it’s beautiful, not necessarily commercial.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

Critics don’t buy records. They get ’em free.

I write songs about real things… The subject dictates the mood and it goes from there, really.

Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized.

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.

Talent is only the starting point.

A great thing about being a musician is you don’t stop until the day you die.

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.