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Creativity Quote by Marian McPartland

"The house is in turmoil with records on every space. In the kitchen and in the dining room is covered with records. I don't have a big enough house to accommodate everything"

About this Quote

It is domestic comedy with a jazz musician's edge: a home so saturated with records that the living space has been annexed by the archive. Marian McPartland isn't just describing clutter; she's sketching an entire life organized around listening, collecting, and remembering. The joke lands because it flips the usual fantasy of "having it all". Here, abundance isn't luxury, it's logistics.

The intent feels practical on the surface (I need more room), but the subtext is almost tender: the records are not objects so much as companions, teachers, receipts of a career spent in conversation with other artists. For a musician of McPartland's generation, recorded music wasn't background noise; it was a portable conservatory, a way to study voicings, steal harmonies, track the evolution of a standard across decades. A pile of records is a map of taste and influence, proof of curiosity kept alive.

There's also a quiet assertion of seriousness. The domestic sphere, often coded as private and feminine, becomes a working studio by sheer force of art. The kitchen and dining room - spaces built for care and social ritual - are overtaken by the materials of the craft. That encroachment reads like devotion, even compulsion: the work doesn't stay politely in the practice room.

Context matters. McPartland's long career, including her role as a broadcaster and interviewer, required deep listening and an encyclopedic memory. The house overflowing with records is the physical manifestation of that mandate. It's funny because it's true; it's moving because it sounds like a life where the music never stops asking for more space.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
McPartland, Marian. (2026, January 16). The house is in turmoil with records on every space. In the kitchen and in the dining room is covered with records. I don't have a big enough house to accommodate everything. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-house-is-in-turmoil-with-records-on-every-129927/

Chicago Style
McPartland, Marian. "The house is in turmoil with records on every space. In the kitchen and in the dining room is covered with records. I don't have a big enough house to accommodate everything." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-house-is-in-turmoil-with-records-on-every-129927/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The house is in turmoil with records on every space. In the kitchen and in the dining room is covered with records. I don't have a big enough house to accommodate everything." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-house-is-in-turmoil-with-records-on-every-129927/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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The House Is In Turmoil With Records In Every Space by Marian McPartland
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About the Author

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Marian McPartland (born March 21, 1918) is a Musician from England.

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