* 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.
Some of the things I've done, I couldn't have
anything but the reputation of being lunatic.
Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.
My time has not yet come . . . some are born posthumously.
Money, you've got lots of friends - Crowding 'round the door.
When you're gone, and the spending ends. - They don't come no more.
It's hard to describe, but when I see people smiling as they listen, I
feel a great joy. It's a kind of magic.
Only a few people are interested in what you have
to say, but that's all right. You don't tell the
quality of a master by the size of his crowds.
Everything government touches turns to crap.
Poetry is not the most important thing in life ... I'd much rather lie
in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.
The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired though being misunderstood.
Prose = words in their best order; -- poetry = the *best* words in the best
order.
I believe in looking at reality and denying it.
The true writer has nothing to say. What counts is the way he says
it.
Assassins! {to his orchestra}
All week long, we're some real nobodies,
But we just punched out: it's pay cheque Friday.
Weekend's here, good God Almighty:
People, let's get drunk an' be somebody, (Let's get drunk.)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
What an ornament and safeguard is humour! Far better than wit for a
poet and writer. It is genius itself, and so defends from the insanities.
Playing at Wolf Trap is like playing inside a Stradivarius.
If I don't practice for one day I know it; for two days, the critics
know it; and for three days the public knows.
I do not know if we shall earn
money, but if it is only enough to let me work
terribly hard, I shall be satisfied; the main thing
is to do what one wants to do.
I do not like to be in company, and often find it
painful and difficult to mingle with people, to
speak to them.
We all fell in love, fell out of love, and fell in love again to the
sound of his voice.
Maturity is a high price to pay for growing up.
My cousin sat down to play a piece of Mendelssohn
he liked. While I was admiring his musicianship, an
officious German rushed over to the musician and
rapped loudly on the piano with his knuckles, 'Stop
that!' he shouted. 'That is decadent Jewish music!'
I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an
Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my
best acting convincing my partners I was in the
throes of ecstasy.
Nothing -- not love, not greed, not passion or hatred -- is stronger
than a writer's need to change another writer's copy