Pat Metheny

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.

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

It is Jazz’s very nature to change, to develop and adapt to the circumstances of its environment.

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

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

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good – he’s rock’s #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us.

Instrumental music can spread the international language.

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

I write about moments, and I don’t make blanket statements about anything because no one has all the answers; nobody’s come up with a foolproof way to do anything when it comes to emotions.

Albert King wasn’t my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues!

There are times when you want to go where you used to go and you can’t go there. So I’m back to Count Basie lifting his hand. And I find you can stop that show with one note just like you can with a hundred.

Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.

In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions – one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play.

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

The secret is keeping busy, and loving what you do.

For me, the most important thing is the element of chance that is built into a live performance. The very great drawback of recorded sound is the fact that it is always the same. No matter how wonderful a recording is, I know that I couldn’t live with it–even of my own music–with the same nuances forever.

The day of the great jazz improviser who doesn’t know how to read music is over.

I think music needs to be of its time and speak to that time.

Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.

After I left Texas and went to California, I had a hard time getting anyone to play anything that I was writing, so I had to end up playing them myself. And that’s how I ended up just being a saxophone player.