Joe Williams

The louder they [the band] play the softer I sing.

It’s not that you want to sing, it’s that you have to sing.

Musicians have the intimacy of bringing two people together and the aesthetic, romantic transference.

You can’t rehearse a blues darlin’.

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’

After you’ve done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time.

I am a writer – that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist.

Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.

Music is to the soul what water is to the body.

I never set out to find a style of my own, it just happened.

I like to know for whom I’m writing – it makes the composition easier to do.

There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead

I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.

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

Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.

The emotional reaction is all that matters.

A great song can pull me out of a slump and lighten my heart.

One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.