Pat Metheny

I don’t worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

Jazz demands that you bring to it things that are valuable to you, that are personal to you.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

The beauty of Jazz is that it’s malleable. People address it to suit their own personalities.

Jazz music will continue to thrive, possibly in unexpected ways.

Jazz is an idea that is more powerful than the details of its history.

Jazz music grabs you to the point where it never lets you go until the very last breath.

First of all, I never strive for identity. That’s something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually.

I could write six songs in one day with everything that’s going on.

It’s like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

All music is beautiful.

Once you have been bitten by the Jazz bug, it is not a choice anymore.

I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

A wise man practices slowly; but a wiser man practices even slower.

Of the whole bunch of guys who play hollow body guitar, I think Herb Ellis has the most drive.

End phrases where you feel they should end. Don’t look for resolutions you don’t feel because the books call for them.

I use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.

I went through a struggle, and I really needed to get myself together and connect with my purpose, which is music.

Talk of God is most often in church. Is there a God outside of church? I hope so. But how should I know? How does anybody know?

People like the idea of the trio and so I did mostly trio.

There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead