Artie Shaw Quotes
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There's such a cynicism about the phrase 'I laughed all the way to the bank.' It's as though money is what you're doing, rather than playing music. If you're playing a money game, why not get into banking?
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If I could have done anything more, it would have been less.
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Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel.
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I can't understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out & look at it?
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When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.'
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The distance between me and Benny [Goodman], was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging.
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Any more would have been less.
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Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijana, and will expire on cocaine.
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I wanted to resign from the planet, not just music. It stopped being fun with success. Money got in the way. Everybody got greedy, including me. Fear set in. I got miserable when I became a commodity.
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Shoot for the moon - if you miss you'll end up in the stars.
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The good old days are neither better nor worse than the ones we're living through right now.