Miles Davis

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.

If you got up on the bandstand at Minton’s and couldn’t play, you might get your ass kicked.

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

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

It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.

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

You don’t know what love is, until you’ve learned the meaning of the blues, until you’ve loved a love you’ve had to lose.

Whenever there’s a change with Jazz and its aesthetics, it’s almost always reflected with a change in the culture.

Talent is only the starting point.

The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn’t know how other people would take it.

All music is beautiful.

I have a nice car, a Mercedes. And then I have an old El Camino truck that I’m crazy about. I like to get in that truck and go up in the hills near where I live, in Vegas, and take my camera. That, to me, is Heaven, being out in nature, taking pictures of the wildlife.

Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about Jazz and Blues.

[On urging Nyro to tell Barbara Streisand that ‘Wedding Bell Blues’ had been personally written for her] It’s not a big lie.

I’ll always write music. Whether I release a record, whether I let the public hear it or not, I’m always writing music.

By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

Why Jazz? This is just the way I see music.

I have music inside me and I’m very lucky to be able to play music and that’s the way that I try to do it.

Hipness is not a state of mind, it’s a fact of life.

Jazz is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

I’ve studied all my musical life, but learning is only good if you do something constructive with it.