John Philip Sousa

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

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.

Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.

The only thing better than singing is more singing.

I’m… a rather simple person with a limited talent and perhaps a limited perspective.

I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It’s time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It’s time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.

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

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

Life is not about finding our limitations, it’s about finding our infinity.

The way I think about the practicing, it is my undercover work.

Jazz is a mental attitude rather than a style. It uses a certain process of the mind expressed spontaneously through some musical instrument. I’m concerned with retaining that process.

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.

Audiences are smart. They are not going to come out to see you unless you are honest.

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

All of the technique doesn’t matter… only if the feeling is right.