Top 153 Quotes & Sayings by Quincy Jones - Page 2

I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it.

After every war, there was a significant change in the music, and I can understand how that happened. If you participate in protecting the country, you think you can be part of it, but you come back home and it's worse than ever.

I never felt like I had a mother.

I don't remember feeling love.

When you work with Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, and you tell them to jump without a net, you better know what you're talking about. Thank God I was ready for it.

I live on the Internet.

When I was 14, I would sit up in my room and write till my eyes would bleed.

Unfortunately, America doesn't have a minister of culture, and I don't understand why. It's really bad for young people.

China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.

I'd been in love before - I was always in love.

Working with kids in Soweto in South Africa, it's rough out there. But the bottom line is you've got to go to know. In Cambodia, there are 10,000 landmines. Same in Afghanistan, same in Colombia. I'm totally addicted to traveling.

I was rapping in 1939. It's old. The roots are complex. And kids don't know.

I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.

When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it.

I think the attraction of 'American Idol' is about the basic human nature attitude that is, 'We can put you up there. But we can take you down.'

I'm a tremendous believer and supporter in hip-hop and rap.

I have all the tools and gadgets. I tell my son, who's a producer, 'You never work for the machine; the machine works for you.'

All guys get into music because they love music and they also want to get the girls.

I hope that on my tombstone it says 'Born 1933, died 2043.' I hope that's my legacy.

When I was 13, I started working in a nightclub with Ray Charles. That's the greatest school in the world, the school of the streets. Ray taught me how to read in Braille. He was only two years older than me, but it was like he was 100 years older.

My son is a hip-hop producer.

I've never been bored in my life, man. I've never been bored or lonely. Are you kidding? No way! I'm an orchestrator, a musician, a producer. I love everything. I've studied languages from Farsi to Greek to French, Swedish, Russian... How can you get bored?

My earliest memories are being pinned to a fence with a switchblade.

My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door.

Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores.

I was the most subtle person in the world.

I don't ever want to grow up. That's boring.

All the jazz guys had interracial relationships, and even the ladies did. Over the years, interracial relationships have been a hip, almost defiant thing, a way of saying "Nobody can put a boundary around me."

What happens when you get a big break and you haven't prepared yourself? That becomes the biggest mistake you've ever made. I see it happen all the time.

It's the attitude about life, man. Looking at the light instead of the dark. Looking at love instead of fear.

Empty the cup every time and it comes back at twice as full. I developed that attitude when I was very, very young, when I decided I didn't want to be a gangster anymore. Whether it's just shining shoes, I said okay, I'm going to do this better than anybody else did it in my life.

It has been proven time and time again in countless studies that students who actively participate in arts education are twice as likely to read for pleasure, have strengthened problem-solving and critical thinking skills, are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair.

I learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk.

There's power in the collective. If you don't believe me, just watch a symphony orchestra with a conductor and 120 people who are thinking about exactly the same thing at the same moment - no babies, no stock markets, no mortgages. Just 32nd notes.

The people who make it to the top - whether they're musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos - are addicted to their calling ... [they] are the ones who'd be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren't being paid.

Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together... Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances into freedom, friendship, hope, and dignity.

You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.

I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth."

I improvised my life along the way - I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.

Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind.

Music was the one thing I could control. It was the one world that offered me freedom. When I played music, my nightmares ended. My family problems disappeared. I didnt have to search for answers. The answers lay no further than the bell of my trumpet and my scrawled, pencilled scores. Music made me full, strong, popular, self-reliant and cool.

You Make Your Mistakes To Learn How To Get To The Good Stuff

Excellence isn't an act, it's a habit

Did you know you would become as successful as you have? Hell, no. But you know what? You were prepared, baby.

The only music I don't like is bad music.

Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I'm needed by someone. As long as you have that, you're healthy.

I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because its not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.

You want your parents to say, "Hey, I'm proud of you." When you don't hear that, you learn to compensate. You say, "Hell, I don't need their approval. If I get my music right, I'll have everyone else's approval." I didn't understand it then, but I now know that's what happened to me.

Editing while you're writing is like strangling the baby in the crib.

Making a record is like painting a school bus with a toothbrush

The process is the most beautiful part.

Let's not get too full of ourselves. Let's leave space for God to come into the room.

I've been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism. I believed in my dreams because they were my only option. The people who make it to the top are addicted to their calling. You have to honor the gift God has given you. The people who get the call are the ones who'd be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren't being paid.

A song should have all the color and beauty of every rose.

When you're over the hill, that's when you pick up speed.

A person's age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.

You have to know that your real home is within.

Not one ounce of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.

There’s nothing in the world worse than having an opportunity that you’re not prepared for. Good luck usually follows the collision of opportunity and preparation - it’s a result of that collision. You’ve got to be prepared. So, make your mistakes now and make them quickly. If you’ve made the mistakes, you know what to expect the next time. That’s how you become valuable.

I used to practice piano for hours, and now, with a synthesizer, you can input the music and the machine perfects the song. That's why we have so many people in the music business who should be plumbers. They don't really understand music because they haven't been trained.