Duke Ellington quotes

Duke Ellington was an influential American jazz composer, pianist, and bandleader. His innovative arrangements and sophisticated style helped shape the sound of jazz throughout the 20th century. He became one of the most celebrated figures in American music history. Here are 32 of his quotes:

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.

Duke Ellington

It's like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something.

Duke Ellington

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

Duke Ellington

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.

Duke Ellington

Playing "bop" is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

Duke Ellington

Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young.

Duke Ellington

Roaming through the jungle of oohs and ahs, searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats.

Duke Ellington

People do not retire. They are retired by others.

Duke Ellington

You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.

Duke Ellington

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.

Duke Ellington

Gray skies are just clouds passing over.

Duke Ellington

There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind ... the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it's successful; if it doesn't it has failed.

Duke Ellington

Every man prays in his own language.

Duke Ellington

How can anyone expect to be understood unless he presents his thoughts with complete honesty? This situation is unfair because it asks too much of the world. In effect, we say, "I don't dare show you what I am because I don't trust you for a minute but please love me anyway because I so need you to. And, of course, if you don't love me anyway, you're a dirty dog, just as I suspected, so I was right in the first place." Yet, every time God's children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.

Duke Ellington

A man is a god in ruins.

Duke Ellington

It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).

Duke Ellington

I don't need time, I need a deadline.

Duke Ellington

There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit Number2- Never forget rule number 1.

Duke Ellington

There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.

Duke Ellington

Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.

Duke Ellington

Critics have their purposes, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what they did.

Duke Ellington

On becoming more acquainted with the word of the Bible, I began to understand so much more of what I had been taught, and of what I had learned about life and about the people in mine.

Duke Ellington