George Gershwin quotes

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist renowned for blending classical music with jazz and popular styles. Many of his works, such as "Rhapsody in Blue" and "An American in Paris," became iconic pieces in American music history. He helped shape the sound of 20th-century American music and inspired generations of musicians. Here are 37 of his quotes:

I frequently hear music in the heart of noise.

George Gershwin

Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.

George Gershwin

The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself...Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.

George Gershwin

I like to think of music as an emotional science.

George Gershwin

Jazz I regard as an American folk music; not the only one, but a very powerful one which is probably in the blood and feeling of the American people more than any other style of folk music.

George Gershwin

When jazz is played in another nation, it is called American. When it is played in another country, it sounds false. Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.

George Gershwin

The European boys have small ideas but they sure know how to dress 'em up.

George Gershwin

A skyscraper is at the same time a triumph of the machine and a tremendous emotional experience, almost breath-taking. Not merely its height but its mass and proportions are the result of an emotion, as well as of calculation.

George Gershwin

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.

George Gershwin

An entire composition written in jazz could not live.

George Gershwin

All great composers of the past spent most of their time studying. Feeling alone won't do the job. A man also needs technique.

George Gershwin

Modern European composers ... have very largely received their stimulus, their rhythms and impulses from Machine Age America. They have a much older tradition of musical technique which has helped them put into musical terms a little more clearly the thoughts that originated here. They can express themselves more glibly.

George Gershwin

Originality is the only thing that counts. But the originator uses material and ideas that occur round him and pass through him. And out of his experience comes the original creation.

George Gershwin

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

George Gershwin

Music sets up certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized.

George Gershwin

Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want?

George Gershwin

Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work.

George Gershwin

All these tales of people sitting down and composing symphonies just as though they were writing a letter are very much exaggerated; at least, it isn't that way in my work.

George Gershwin

What the hell do you want to work for somebody else for? Work for yourself!

George Gershwin

Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.

George Gershwin

Gershwin's melodic gift was phenomenal. His songs contain the essence of New York in the 1920s and have deservedly become classics of their kind, part of the 20th-century folk-song tradition in the sense that they are popular music which has been spread by oral tradition (for many must have sung a Gershwin song without having any idea who wrote it).

George Gershwin

It sounds simple, of course, but personally I can think of no more mentally arduous task than making music.

George Gershwin