Nina Simone
Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
"Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you."
Jazz quotes
Jazz
728 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Kurt Cobain
Musician, Singer-Songwriter
"The worst crime is faking it."
Miles Davis
Musician
"To keep creating you have to be about change."
Miles Davis
Musician
"Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one."
Billie Holiday
Singer
"When you sing, always tell the truth."
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Topics related to Jazz
Browse quotes that often appear alongside jazz — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Jazz quotes (page 1 of 37)
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"A short story relies on those values that make poetry and jazz what they are: tension, rhythms, inner beat, into unforeseen within foreseen parameters"
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"I love that pre-mod jazz look of the late Fifties, the Steve McQueen style that influenced the British modernists."
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"There are no natural barriers. It's all music. It's either hip or it ain't."
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"I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast."
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"You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians."
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"I work very hard at being the best musician I can be because I love it."
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"The better it gets, the fewer of us know it."
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"You don't have to live the blues to play the blues."
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"Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born."
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"What are you going to do when you love music? You can't stop."
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"Music is what we need when language fails us, but we cannot remain silent."
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"I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The music is supposed to be coming through me; that's when it's really happening."
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"I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself."
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"You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads."
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"I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics."
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"There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places."
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"It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play."
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"Always look ahead, but never look back."
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"I'm gonna live till I die."
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"Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!"
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