Dizzy Gillespie

They’re not particular whether you’re playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.

Men have died for this music. You can’t get more serious than that.

It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don’t you ask him? And besides, maybe we’d all like to be like Miles, and just haven’t got the guts.

They’re not particular about whether you’re playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.

The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play.

If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterward.

The fact that an artist is experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in it together.

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

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

I’d rather be B.B. King. That’s the way I started. Let the heavy metal guys play heavy metal, let the others play the other… I try to do what I do better, not get away from it.

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.

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.

I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.

The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.

It’s not technique — it’s what you have to say.

A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

The true musician plays what he/she hears. That cannot be a mistake.

It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.