Top 106 Quotes & Sayings by Dianne Reeves

My mother would say, 'Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.' I spent a lot of my early years preparing for beautiful moments that have unfolded in my life so far.

I always have a little bit of Brazil and New Orleans in my band.

Art and culture and all of these things - they really matter. They shape your individuality.

I grew up listening to all kinds of music. When I came up, you would hear people like Marvin Gaye talking about Sarah Vaughan. You would go to a show and see Ella Fitzgerald performing the music of the Beatles.

I love to create something new every night onstage; that makes a big difference.

When I first heard Nina Simone, her naked truth shocked me. Whenever she sang, it felt like lightning bolts in my soul. Every song was like a movie, a unique and very different vignette.

I come from a family of musicians.

I always say that improvisation is the utterance of one's spirit, and it dictates your life experience, and that's how you find your concepts and your way for painting your musical picture.

My mother was actually born in Toledo and raised in Detroit.

Jazz is such a living art form. It happens right in the moment. You weave a story by changing certain elements and components.

When I was in junior high school, I knew I really wanted to sing.

Lizz Wright, we call her lovingly 'Amazing Grace.' She has a folk and gospel kind of approach to the music, and she writes beautiful lyrics and songs. She's like this balm that is really full and very rich and deep.

I never looked or really believed that music should be categorized into particular genres.

My records are one thing. My live performances are something totally different because they're very improvised performances.

Oh my gosh, I love Jon Hendricks.

I loved singing something like 'I've Got My Eye On You' when it's really about the FBI. It turns a love song into something else!

And I've found that, you know, the world of music is so vast and so broad, but at the same time, it's easy to find parts of yourself in places that you wouldn't even think that you were, you know?

Anything that had to do with music is what I wanted to do.

In high school, we had a really great jazz program that I finally was able to be a part of. They only wanted instrumentalists; they didn't want any singers. But I made my way in, and I remember the conductor of the band wrote a lot of arrangements and asked me what I wanted to sing.

I'm a great cook. People have asked me to do a cookbook.

When I found out how music made me feel and how my singing made other people feel, that's when I decided this is what I wanted to do.

I have a sketch of an idea and I never really talk about: perhaps do another jazz record, but with other elements involved.

Singers like Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar are very conscious of what's going on around them, and they're waking up lot of young people with that knowledge. They bring their enlightenment to the world; the world that is buying their records.

I think the only way for you to grow and evolve is to keep listening, keep moving forward, keep jumping in and trying to experience.

Being from Colorado is, to me, very, very special. I'm just very thankful to be here. I'm also thankful to be a part of the history of this state.

Go out into the world with your passion and love for what you do, and just never give up.

I think that when I started singing, I didn't know what I wanted to do; I only knew what I didn't want to do.

I love New York City because there's something to do 24/7, something that will make you see things in a whole different light. Like they say, it's the city that never sleeps.

My friend Harry Belafonte is an activist and musician, an extraordinary man who has dedicated his life to human rights. He taught me the power of words and that music can be used to heal and educate people.

Early on, I started with classical voice and had that wonderful foundation. For where I wanted to go at that time, there were no teachers to teach it, so I came up with all kinds of different ways to develop the sound of my voice.

When I worked with my uncle, I loved the fact that jazz music demanded that you use your own unique approach.

My musical selections are a reflection of how I grew up. Because, back then, you could see Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar on the same stage. And nobody thought anything of it, other than the fact that it was great music.

I think jazz is the foundation for a lot of great musicians, and then after that, you know, it's this broad expression of things that really have influenced and addressed your life.

It's funny: I look at songs, and I guess they each tell a story, and the different songs talk about different things. But they're unified by the rhythm underneath and the way that we decided to arrange and play them.

I've always respected and taken care of my instrument.

I remember my grandmother used to always say, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.' But when I realized that music was inside of me, I decided I'm putting all my eggs in one basket.

The biggest thing is, when I was coming up, the thing that made you wonderful was your uniqueness. People celebrated that.

Nina Simone is a musical genius and a rich and precious treasure who paid a heavy price for her artistic freedom.

A lot of young people want to become jazz singers, but there are not more jam sessions like there used to be. I just want to have the opportunity to be able to bring that to some young people.

I never wanted to do anything else, really. I left home at an early age trying to find my voice, my niche in music.

The thing that I tell young people is everybody is unique in their approach to the music, and you have to protect that.

I'm always inspired to push forward.

My junior high school teacher, Bennie Williams, was really more than a music teacher. She taught us poetry. She helped us put on school shows. She did all these kinds of things to help us stand in each other's shoes, and it was a really powerful time. That's when I discovered that I could sing.

Your voice is not your instrument. Your voice is the character that you build, your innermost feelings, the things that you want to say, and your instrument is the vehicle that you use to carry the message.

Music is a conversation between the audience and me, and I love that about my profession.

I had aunts who played piano and sang and also were entertainers, so music was very much a part of my life.

I did a project called 'Sing The Truth,' which was a lot of fun. It started out being a celebration of the music of Nina Simone, and it was me and Lizz Wright and Angelique Kidjo.

I lived in Los Angeles for a long time, and in a lot of ways, I felt like I lived in my car.

People think jazz music is all standards and the Great American Songbook. But it's really about the sensibility, the feel you bring to the music.

I look back at Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and especially Betty Carter, whom I admire the most, and I say, OK, they set a standard of excellence. I listen to them not for what they are doing, but to study where they are coming from because, for me, jazz is life experience.

I think an artist who has it in their heart to do or say something, they'll say it. It's not something that's mandatory, but it will come out.

I grew up with great mentors in my life who helped me become the singer I am today.

My musicians know all of my music, and so that makes for something different.

Jazz musicians have always taken the standards of their time and performed them with a jazz sensibility.

When I moved to Los Angeles, right away I met all kinds of musicians.

Even in a world with much sadness, at its essence, life is beautiful.

Art is a direct reflection of the life you live. What you experience comes out in your work.

I think people have come to know that I am not comfortable in a box, you know, and that I love music.

The music we do is weaved together through stories and life experiences. When people come to hear us, I hope they are are uplifted and that we give them a lot to take home.

I'm a chameleon. When you put me in certain soils, musically speaking, I will be in that place.