Nat King Cole

Only time, education and plenty of good schooling will make anti-segregation work.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

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

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

For years the trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We starved.

I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

If you must listen to bad music, please use headphones.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

I am attracted to Jazz music for the idea of being in the moment and communicating to people spontaneously.

When you want ’em you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em.

Jazz music is an aural souvenir of mankind’s attempt to express the intangible, the heart, the soul, through art.

I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.

When I started playing, I was playing just the harmonica. We’re back in the prohibition days. Like down a dark alley somewhere, you’d play for an illegal club that was probably right behind a police station, and what I’d do is sing and play the harmonica. It didn’t take me long to work out that I needed something more, and that was the guitar. So when you added the guitar, the harmonica and my voice, you would be talking with people mainly in the bar, or in the restaurant, or the people in the pub.

Jazz music has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativity and personal identity.

If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes, take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball. So we want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing.

Jazz music is a style, not compositions; any kind of music may be played in Jazz if one has the knowledge.

[on Django Reinhardt] By far the most astonishing guitar player ever … Django was quite superhuman, there’s nothing normal about him as a person or a player

Jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

I’m glad I don’t have perfect pitch because it can drive you crazy.

I work very hard at being the best musician I can be because I love it.