Herbie Hancock

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

I try to practice with my life.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

But I have to be careful not to let the world dazzle me so much that I forget that I’m a husband and a father.

A great teacher stimulates his student’s creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.

The thing I always default to is that I’ll always be here to write songs.

I never heard of a Jazz musician who retired. You love what you do, so what are you going to do… play for the walls?

Musicians should never forget we’re blessed. We have a special gift that people enjoy through us.

But the guitar, my lady, whether well played or badly played, well strung or badly strung, is pleasant to hear and listen to; being so easy to learn, it attracts the busiest of talented people and makes them put aside loftier occupations so that they may hold a guitar in their hands.

What have I got? No looks, no money, no education… just talent.

If a Jazz musician plays someone else’s song, he has a responsibility to make a distinct and original statement.

The blues comes right back to a person’s feelings, to his daily activities in life. But rich people don’t know nothing about the blues, please believe me.

Jazz is one of the least learnable art forms.

We usually never got out of there before four or five o’clock in the morning. Every morning. So it was rough.

Anyone who doesn’t give [his debut album, The College Dropout] a perfect score is lowering the integrity of the magazine

Music does not come to you. You have to come to it and you’ll walk away with something you didn’t have before.

I sing like I feel.

Jazz has such great feeling and emotional content it really doesn’t require technical understanding.

Surrender your whole being to a note and gravity disappears.

If you already have a piece of music ingrained in your body, why would you not play it?