* some views expressed in these quotations not neccesarily endorsed by the author of this file.
* for entertainment only - history is not an exact science - dates and quotes not guaranteed for accuracy.
Sometimes I wonder -- What I'm a gonna do -- But there ain't no cure -- For the summertime blues.
Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave.
Middle age snuffs out more talent than ever wars or sudden deaths do.
It's easy sometimes to get lost in all the drug stuff that Tim's famous for (...) But it wasn't Tim's only legacy. It was his vitality, enthusiasm, curiosity, humor and humanity that made Tim great -- and those are the real ingredients of a mad scientist.
When I was fifteen, my family took a vacation to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and I got to hear Al Hirt, the great trumpeter, in his own club. At first they wouldn't let me in because I was underage. (...) the doorman told us that Hirt was sitting in his car reading just around the corner, and that only he could let me in. I found him--in his Bentley no less--tapped on the window, and made my case. He got out, took Mother and me into the club, and put us at a table near the front. He and his group played a great set--it was my first live jazz experience.
Any person . . . who digs jazz, will dig the mambo.
By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.
Before Muddy [Waters] died, he told me, "Don't let the blues die." We as blues players don't have the recognition that I hope we could get. But who am I? I can't do nothing about it. All we can do is just play.
The blues had a baby, and they called it rock 'n' roll.
Art must give suddenly, all at once the shock of life, the sensation of breathing.
When you're not with me, I feel as though I'm not complete. When I'm sitting, I want to go away; when I go away, I'd rather be home; when I'm talking with people, I'd rather be studying; when I study, I can't sit still and concentrate; and when I go to sleep, I'm not satisfied with the way the day has passed.
To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do - bad or good.
Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.
I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.
I feel exactly the same as I've always felt: a lightly reined-in voracious beast.
There are certain rubati and controlled accelerandi that only a conductor can achieve, and he knew exactly what he was going for and exactly how to get it.
... I don't particularly care for the word. [salsa] However, sometimes they call me The King of Salsa, so I'll go along with it, I won't dispute it--as long as they don't call me The Queen of Salsa!
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.
What we call human nature, is actually human habit.
The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?
All dope can do for you is kill you--and kill you the long slow hard way. And it can kill the people you love right along with you. And that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.
The only moments I have when I play that are worth anything to me are when I can blissfully ignore the people I am supposed to be entertaining. No me; no silly public to amuse; only the heart and the soul, the world, the birds, storms, dreams, sadness, heavenly serenity. Then I am an artist worthy of the name.... Until it happens, or if it doesn't happen, I am miserable....
I'm only interested in heavy metal when it's me who is playing it. I suppose it's a bit like smelling your own farts.
We'll never know if the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh is truly getting off on the thousand and first time he segues from "China Cat Sunflower" into "I Know You Rider," or if he's just thinking about making a payment on a houseboat, or how much his back aches. It will forever remain a mystery whether Pete Townshend is cursing us as suckers and muttering "I'm too old for this" to himself as he windmills through the climax of "Won't Get Fooled Again" for the thousand and second time.
Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least, for they are thinking out inventions and forming in their minds the perfect idea that they subsequently express with their hands.
If you don't have sex and you don't do drugs, your rock 'n' roll better be awfully good.
I have had three masters: Nature, Velasquez, and Rembrandt.
Hey now, hey now -- Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now -- When the world comes in
They come, they come --To build a wall between us -- Don't ever let them win
What I have in my heart and soul, must find a way out. That is the reason for music.
When I said I was bisexual in the mid-70s, I was the first major star apart, from David Bowie, to admit that. (...) But I feel very easy about my sexuality now. I thought everybody knew anyway.
Amid the lunacy of it all, we did have some pretty good times; but in the end, when you're just sitting in your room for two weeks at a time having cocaine put under your door, and not eating, and drinking bottles of whiskey, there is no fun in it.
I did cocaine basically for sex. My sexual fantasies were all played out while I was on cocaine.
Career is too pompous a word. It was a job, and I have always felt > privileged to be paid for what I love doing.
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.
The thing most people don't understand about show business's so-called "personalities" is that our lives are often just as normal as theirs, and if [normal] means being screwed-up, then, yes, I am normal and screwed-up. I try to maintain a certain dignity about it. That's all I can do.
It's wonderful satisfaction to finally be hip.
Soul to me is a feeling, a lot of depth and being able to bring to the surface that which is happening inside, to make the picture clear. The song doesn't matter. . . . It's just the emotion, the way it affects other people.
I might be just 26, but I'm an old woman in disguise.