Ornette Coleman

We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we’ve forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We’ve separated music from life.

I wasn’t so interested in being paid. I wanted to be heard. That’s why I’m broke.

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

I think that those elements – light and sound – are beyond democratic. They’re into the creative part of life.

It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

I had a really good time in New Orleans, although I had some very tragic times in Baton Rouge. Some guys beat me up and threw my horn away. ‘Cause I had a beard, then, and long hair like the Beatles.

I don’t pop my cork for every man I see.

I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player and a special award in 1961 for quietness.

I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique.

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.

If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all

[Stratocaster vs Les Paul] It’s a totally different animal. One is for very subtle and, I would say, more musical things that you can distract and abuse. You can’t do that with a Les Paul. It’s too delicate. It’s got a very delicate tone; most people don’t ever realize that because they are plugged into monstrous amplifiers which completely, instantaneously covers up the unique sound quality it has. All those years of development go straight out the window when you overload the amp.

It’s the same for listeners. If you can’t stand your girlfriend, can’t take it anymore, put on your headphones and escape into another world.

If you already have a piece of music ingrained in your body, why would you not play it?

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel.

There has always been a tension between Jazz as a commercial music and as an art form.

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

The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of their instrument.