Duke Ellington Quotes

Love is supreme and unconditional. Like is nice, but limited.

Problems are chances for us to do our best.

My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.

Simplicity is a most complex form

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

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

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

A goal is a dream with a finish line.

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

There are two kinds of worries - those you can do something about and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter.

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

The artist must say it without saying it.

There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!

Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.

If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!

I don't need time. What I need is a deadline!

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?

Selfishness can be a virtue. Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves.

Every man prays in his own language.

Critics get a little carried away with what someone should have done, rather than what he did.

If it sounds good, it IS good.

Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one.

I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King's son.

Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn't do nothing.

If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It's not an occupation or profession, it's a compulsion.

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

There is no art when one does something without intention.

Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.

It doesn't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing

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

You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it's bad.

There is no art without intention.

Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.

A Satin Doll is a woman who is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

People do not retire. They are retired by others.

Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.

Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.

My biggest kick in music -playing or writing- is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything?

You can't write music right unless you know how the man that'll play it plays poker.

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.

Hurry, get on board, it's comin', listen to those rails a-thrumming all aboard. Get on the "A" train, soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem.

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

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

The Europeans who went to Africa came back with modern' art. What is more African than a Picasso?

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

New music? Hell, there's been no new music since Stravinsky.

Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.

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

Of the One O'Clock Lab Band after hearing their performance, and sitting in with them at the White House: "I wish it were mine".

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

Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.

Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.

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

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

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.