Duke Ellington Zitate

“It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).”

“I don't need time, I need a deadline.”

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.”

“How can anyone expect to be understood unless he presents his thoughts with complete honesty? This situation is unfair because it asks too much of the world. In effect, we say, "I don't dare show you what I am because I don't trust you for a minute but please love me anyway because I so need you to. And, of course, if you don't love me anyway, you're a dirty dog, just as I suspected, so I was right in the first place." Yet, every time God's children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.”

“Roaming through the jungle of "oohs" and "ahs," searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats.”

“By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.”

“If it sounds good, it IS good.”

“Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.”

“It's like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something.”

“There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind … the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it's successful; if it doesn't it has failed.”

“Every man prays in his own language.”

“Playing "Bop" is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.”