Music Quotes

"I gladly accepted the commission but was uncertain about what the end result would be. On the one hand, Cuban music was conquering the world; being heard everywhere, and our small island was already producing one of the popular musical genres of the 20th century"

Alejo Carpentier, Novelist

"When I'm on stage by myself, I don't have to think about anything. I don't have to worry about anything because I'm not responsible for anything except just opening my mouth and making sure music comes out"

Bobby McFerrin, Musician

"I never was very capable of expressing my feelings or emotions in words. I don't know whether this is the cause why I did it in music and also why I did it in painting. Or vice versa: That I had this way as an outlet. I could renounce expressing something in words"

Arnold Schoenberg, Composer

"I just thank God I can make a living doing something I enjoy as much as I do playing music"

Charlie Daniels, Musician

"How you act, walk, look and talk is all part of Hip Hop culture. And the music is colorless. Hip Hop music is made from Black, brown, yellow, red and white"

Afrika Bambaataa, Musician

"I was a schooled musician. When I made 'Blue Velvet', I told everyone what to do. I was an arranger. I learned music in school I told the band to play this. I told the guitar to do that"

Bobby Vinton, Musician

"I'm just trying to avoid any sort of generic kind of music - I don't want to do generic jazz or fusion"

Andy Summers, Musician

"All I've ever wanted to do was play music and go on the road and make records"

Brody Armstrong, Musician

"We deliberately used elements from Brazilian music and from African and Asian music. Now people can hear that but then it sounded so abstract, they couldn't hear it"

Arto Lindsay, Musician

"That's my fun time so, to me, doing my homework, studying on what I do, watching the movies, listening to music, all that inspires me so I focus a lot on that and practice"

Christina Milian, Musician

"To some degree, yeah, because I have to play a certain number of originals that might be considered avant-garde material. I realize though, that only a few people in the audience actually know what that music is, or understand it"

Archie Shepp, Musician

"Black music has become a commercial commodity. Live performances are not so accessible as they were previously. It use to be possible to go to the bar on the corner and hear music. It was available for a fifteen cent beer"

Archie Shepp, Musician

"A whole generation of young whites have involved themselves with traditional Negro music"

Archie Shepp, Musician

"When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match"

Bruce Beresford, Director

"I seldom play in a trio, but acoustic music is likely to be lighter, quicker, and quieter"

Bill Bruford, Musician

"I'm just experimenting with every different type of music you can imagine and seeing where my voice lies and what sounds best. I think when I do finally do the album it will be very eclectic - just loads of different stuff on it. That's what I am hoping"

Charlotte Church, Musician

"There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans or Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly"

Boris Vian, Writer

"To me the bottom line is: good music is good music"

Dave Haywood, Musician

"I don't think you need a record deal to write songs. You don't need any other reason than you want to do it. It's a far cry from why some people do music today. They make it to order, which is pretty horrible"

Andy Taylor

"It's not until I hear songs that I've done, that I realize how much of an inspiration music from the '60s and '70s has been"

Alicia Keys, Musician

"Oh yes, much, because music is just something that comes to you. You don't question it"

Bryan Ferry, Musician

"There just is exponentially more money in the movie business than in the music business. As a result there are more people involved in the creative process"

Adam Duritz, Musician

"I take a baths all the time. I'll put on some music and burn some incense and just sit in the tub and think, Wow, life is great right now"

Brian Austin Green, Actor

"My youngest daughter sings. She's going to be very good. She's graduated from Music School and she's been working down around and getting her feet wet, you know. I had her out with me for a year just showing her the ropes a little bit, but she's going to be all right"

Billy Eckstine, Musician

"And I like messing around in the engine room of music. Seeing what happens in the rhythm section area"

Bill Bruford, Musician

"In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure"

David Friedman, Musician

"I publish my own music. I'm creating my own songbook. It works that way for me; I'm very independent"

David Friedman, Musician

"The calm mind allows one to connect with the inner self, the Soul, the very source of our being. That's where the music lives. That's where my music comes from"

Clarence Clemons, Musician

"The funny thing is, the music that I'm writing now is probably some of the most cutting edge we've ever done. The music that I'm thinking about putting on our next album"

Charlie Daniels, Musician

"We were really interested in music from all over the world. We realized that what we were doing was very close to contemporary classical music because of the lack of tonality in the guitar- the fact that I play guitar the way I play"

Arto Lindsay, Musician

"I prefer to write music for family films. I like people"

Alex North, Composer

"Composers today get a TV script on Friday and have to record on Tuesday. It's just dreadful to impose on gifted talent and expect decent music under these conditions"

Alex North, Composer

"And of course there's so much music in and around our family. I had a piano during Christmas because it's obviously useful through the season. There are so many people, songwriters, who are around"

Ashley Judd, Actress

"I would say that although my music may be or may have been part of the cultural background fabric of the gay community, I consider myself an outsider who belongs everywhere and nowhere... Being a human being is what truly counts. That's where you'll find me"

Annie Lennox, Musician

"I think that's one of the things that has always put me in kind of an odd niche. It's that all of my understanding of orchestral music is via film, not via classical music like it's supposed to be. To me it's the same, it doesn't make any difference"

Danny Elfman, Musician

"A musician has to find a way to make his music mean something special - spiritually or however you can"

Charlie Byrd, Musician

"I played Big Band jazz music. I wasn't into rock and roll. I was just there because it was a living. I surprised everyone. I'm still surprising people"

Bobby Vinton, Musician

"Soul music is timeless"

Alicia Keys, Musician

"It was very interesting for me because DNA made music without much technical knowledge at all"

Arto Lindsay, Musician

"In the back of your mind, when you say you want to write music for the movies, you're saying that you want a big house, a big car and a boat. If you just wanted to write music, you could live in Kansas and do it"

Bill Conti, Director

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