Miles Davis

Always look ahead, but never look back.

I don’t like to hear someone put down Dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know.

Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

Do not fear mistakes, there are none.

Yeah, it’s more like playing what you think is appropriate for the moment, not forcing any particular style.

It’s not all smoke and mirrors. Some of it comes from books.

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

Music’s been around a long time, and there’s going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it’s a big record, that’s the frosting on the cake, but music’s the main meal.

Jazz is a living music; since its beginning has expressed the feelings, dreams and hopes of the people.

Everybody that you could name would join in our audiences from, Laguardia on down. Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

Jazz is music made by and for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions.

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.

I prefer no one to teach me. I prefer to swing on my own.

In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.

Women bring something different to an instrument if they are respectful of their feminine aesthetic.

Being a Jazz musician is not a rose garden!

I think pop music is one of the few things in the 20th century that have made giant strides in reverse.

Oh, my darling, it’s incredible, that someone so unforgettable should think I am unforgettable, too.

I was never interested in singing in the church or school. I was more interested in becoming a musician.