Quotes About Expression

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

I'm just trying to tell a good story and make thought-provoking, entertaining films. I just try and draw upon the great culture we have as a people, from music, novels, the streets.

External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.

Words cannot express as music does, that unsayable grace which cannot be defined. It leaps like light from mind to mind.

Sing a song, read a poem, paint a picture, hear the music... Rise up and touch the stars

Music is a fantastic peacekeeper of the world, it is integral to harmony, and it is a required fundamental of human emotion.

If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.

The most important things cannot be spoken; that's why there's music.

If a guy's got it, let him give it. I'm selling music, not prejudice.

The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?

Music is about the only thing left that people don't fight over.

I write music, it's performed. After all, my music says it all. It doesn't need historical and hysterical commentaries. In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music.

The great tragedy of the average man is that he goes to his grave with his music still in him.

Music should go right through you, leave some of itself inside you, and take some of you with it when it leaves.

I like to be one of those drummers who actually add to the music, not one of those guys who sit in a room 24/7 trying to outwit or outplay another drummer.

I think todays music absolutely stinks. I really do mean that.

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel not the way others think you should feel.

Modern music is as dangerous as narcotics.

Being able to express myself through music and art has always been when I feel the most alive.

Bands are about these little relationships that make everything tick, and when you create new music you're testing those relationships.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

Jazz is neither specific repertoire, nor academic exercise... but a way of life.

I'm going to spend my life writing poems, turning them into music that will affect people and touch their hearts. I'm going to write the songs that people can't write for themselves.

It's a marvelous feeling when someone says I want to do this song of yours because they've connected to it. That's what I'm after.