Quincy Jones Quotes
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Melody is king, and don't you ever forget it. Lyrics appear to be out front, but they're not; they're just an accompanying factor. If they're good, you're really in good shape. Lyrics are written to be rewritten.
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You cannot get an A if you're afraid of getting an F.
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We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too.
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I believe in astrology as much as I do in genetics.
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Few rappers realize the genre sprang from West African griots through Delta slave songs to jazz poetry and the comedic trash talk of 'the dozens.'
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My earliest memories are being pinned to a fence with a switchblade.
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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.
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Some summers my father would take us down to visit our grandmother in Louisville, who was an ex-slave, Susan Jones, and she had a shotgun shack they call it, and no electricity, a well in the back, a coal stove, kerosene lamps.
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Unfortunately, America doesn't have a minister of culture, and I don't understand why. It's really bad for young people.
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I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music - gospel, blues, jazz and R&B - is the heart and soul of all popular music; and that we cannot afford to let this legacy slip into obscurity, I'm telling you.
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I didn't understand key signatures or anything, you know. I'd say silly things at the top of a trumpet part like, 'Note, when you play B naturals, make the B naturals a half step lower because they sound funny if they're B naturals.' And some guy said: 'Idiot, just put a flat on the third line and it's a key signature, you know?'
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When I was 14, I would sit up in my room and write till my eyes would bleed.
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I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe.
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I lost my mother when I was 7 and they put her in a mental hospital. My brother and I watched her being taken away in a strait jacket. That's something you never forget. And my stepmother was like in the movie 'Precious.' I couldn't handle it. So I said to myself, 'I don't have a mother. I don't need one. I'm going to let music be my mother.'
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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.
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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.
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I hope that on my tombstone it says 'Born 1933, died 2043.' I hope that's my legacy.
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Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.
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Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they're 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know?
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I travel like a maniac. I travel more than anyone I know. I love learning the languages.
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I look back and say, "This must have been somebody else." I am not going to tell you that when I was 4, I dreamed about all of this.
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I've met every freak in the business.
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Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.
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I'm Pisces with Leo rising. The Pisces part is the dreamer. The Leo says, 'Let's execute.'