Quincy Jones Quotes
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I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.
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I never cared about money or fame, and I don't care now. I follow the groove, and money always follows.
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I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.
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Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores.
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It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play.
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Everybody has their idiosyncrasies.
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Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important.
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I was married for 36 years but now I'm free.
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I'd been in love before - I was always in love.
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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.
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I believe that a hundred years from now, when people look back at the 20th century, they will look at Miles, Bird, Clifford Brown, Ella and Dizzy, among elders as our Mozarts, our Chopins, our Bachs and Beethovens.
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China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.
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I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.
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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.
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Cherish your mistakes, and you won't keep making them over and over again. It's the same with heartbreaks and girls and everything else. Cherish them, and they'll put some wealth in you.
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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.
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I live on the Internet.
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A lot of the guys were like that - Oscar Pettiford - they just took me under their wing, and that's why I automatically help young people. I just love it, because they did that for me.
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I chose the trombone because the trombone players in the marching band got to be up front with the majorettes (because of the slides) and I loved that!
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Benny [Carter] opened the eyes of a lot of producers and studios, so that they could understand that you could go to blacks for other things outside of blues and barbecue. He's a total musician. He was the pioneer, he was the foundation. He made it possible for that doubt to be taken away.
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I was inspired by a lot of people when I was young. Every band that came through town, to the theater, or the dance hall. I was at every dance, every night club, listened to every band that came through, because in those days we didn't have MTV, we didn't have television.
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Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring.
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I improvised my life along the way - I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.
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Whenever a woman would come too close, I would cut her off. Part of that was vindictive - but that was totally subconscious.