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Miles Davis Quotes

 

  • "Always look ahead, but never look back."
     
  • "Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent."
     
  • "As long as I’ve been playing, they never say I done anything. They always say that some white guy did it."
     
  • "At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks too Duke Ellington."
     
  • "Bad music is what will ruin music, not the instruments musicians choose to play."
     
  • "But you've got to have style in whatever you do -- writing, music, painting, fashion, boxing, anything."
     
  • "Coltrane, you cant play everything at once!"
     
  • "Do not fear mistakes - there are none."
     
  • "Don't play what's there; play what's not there."
     
  • "For me, music and life are all about style."
     
  • "Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is."
     
  • "I always listen to what I can leave out."
     
  • "I don’t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing."
     
  • "I don’t like to hear someone put down Dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know."
     
  • "I’ll play it first and tell you what it is afterwards."
     
  • "If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit."
     
  • "In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much."
     
  • "I hate how white people always try to take credit for something after they discover it. Like it wasn't happening before they found out about it--which most times is always late, and they didn't have nothing to do with it happening."
     
  • "I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me “a legend”.(…) A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it."
     
  • "I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light."
     
  • "If you don't know what to play, play nothing."
     
  • "If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can't be trusted."
     
  • "If you understood everything I said, you’d be me."
     
  • "It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change."
     
  • "It’s like, how did Columbus discover America when the Indians were already here? What kind of shit is that, but white people’s shit?"
     
  • "It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note – it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong."
     
  • "Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around."
     
  • "Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery."
     
  • "Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself."
     
  • "Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it."
     
  • "Music is an addiction."
     
  • "My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life."
     
  • "Some day I'm gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up."
     
  • "Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself."
     
  • "We’re not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got ’em, so they can keep ’em."
     
  • "When I got into music I went all the way into music; I didn't have no time after that for nothing else."
     
  • "When you’re creating your own shit, man, even the sky ain’t the limit."
     
  • "You have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself."
     
  • "You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads."