Branford Marsalis Quotes
The piano is the X factor. People have a tough time following the structures when there's no piano there, spelling it out. It makes it more easily understood, particularly to people who don't know as much about music.

Quotes to Explore
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If you're thin-skinned, you don't belong doing what I do for a living.
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I love Tig Notaro; I just think she's so awesome.
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I love speaking at schools. That's always my favorite because I wish I'd had someone who was like me come speak at my school.
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Every artist says that he/she wants to do something challenging, and I'm not any different. If someone approaches me with a serious role, I'll be more than happy.
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We see book-burning as a crime against humanity: it's intolerable because books represent a kind of freedom to us.
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I have a lot of friends who do what I do. Either they're actresses or singers or things like that.
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To go behind a man's hall-door is mean, cowardly, unfair opposition.
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When you look at the lyrics of 'Sometimes When We Touch,' it's really very much an adolescent song.
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Spiritual formation is character formation. Everyone gets a spiritual formation. It's like education. Everyone gets an education; it's just a matter of which one you get.
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I will not promote other people's songs big time. I will just mention that I produced the song to get the credit I think I deserve.
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The power should be in individual democracies in individual communities. It shouldn't be an oligarchy or some small group of elite. Power should be with the people and not with some politician or some heir to the throne or some madman.
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A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly.
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To all the parents out there, thank you for allowing me to be a role model for your children. I really, really do not take that for granted.
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'Star Wars' meant everything to me growing up.
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I was always ambitious - not to make money: to be published.
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Though my plans at the moment are vague, I can assure you that I'll never run for the Senate in New York.
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I don't feel we need a declaration from the Palestinians that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
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And I'm not so in love with making people mad that I want to live my life around it.
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This only grant me, that my means may lie too low for envy, for contempt too high.
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Search is an unsolved problem.
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A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.
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I want to do roles that take women a step farther. I don't want to be slotted into anything. But if I get a brilliant role which requires me to be a mother, then I will do it. But I want people to see that a woman could be anything at whatever age, even if she is married or has two kids.
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Well, softness and femininity like yours people don't expect of me; so when they find me emotional and capable of real vulnerability, they're surprised.
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The piano is the X factor. People have a tough time following the structures when there's no piano there, spelling it out. It makes it more easily understood, particularly to people who don't know as much about music.