Frankie Knuckles Quotes

The first job I got when I was in high school was working for a department store in New York. I worked in the stockroom. That's when I learned that I couldn't work for anyone else, because I was spoken to in a way that I wasn't spoken to at home.

I used to tell myself when I was much younger that I didn't want to wake up one day and be 32 years old and still playing records. It's just not going to happen. Well, the joke is on me, because I'm 56 years old now.

There is always a point in the party where I wouldn't say I have people in the palm of my hands, but when there is a point in the evening... if you have been to any great party, you know when the whole room becomes one.

I think women's ears are a lot more sensitive. Men are going to follow whatever appeals to women.

I refused to be disrespected. So, at 16, of course, I was a gentleman about it, but I told them and it cost me my job.

I have worked with a lot of different great people. One of the things my partner, my manager Judy Weinstein, instilled in [David] Morales and myself is that the quality goes in before the name goes home.

I am definitely in the right place doing the right thing. These are the rewards.

I learned to trust women's ears when it comes to hearing music a lot more than other men.

I'm of the mind that your private life is private and you don't need to put everything out there about yourself - but on there, I describe myself as a citizen of the world, a man of music.

When you create something out of nothing it's the most thrilling thing.

It's not easy staying relevant in the marketplace.

I'm always looking for just the right song that has something to say.

Timing is everything. It is not so much about who you know, especially now with the Internet, because anybody can become a superstar overnight.

I think dancing is one of the best things anyone can do for themselves. And it doesn't cost anything.

The music is everything to me.

A friend of mine that happened to be a DJ at another club actually offered me a job [as a DJ]. I didn't think I could do it but he said, "You know all the music. You are at all the parties, and everybody knows you."

The minute you think you're greater than the music, you're finished

I believe it also says that I am a friend to everyone and enemy to no one.

The lack of quality dance music and the fact that here in the United States, house music is not seen as anything viable by the music industry. I figured that this might be another shot at the industry looking at the possibilities of house music and giving it a little bit more legitimacy than what they give it. It's a host of different things, but it's something that I needed to say musically.

There are two people that probably influenced me more than anybody out of all the artists out here: that's Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson.

Well technology has changed a lot of things, making it possible for just about anyone to make music. But not everybody is a songwriter, so that puts me in a completely different ballpark than the other DJs out here that are writing and producing tracks. I don't stop at tracks, I try to complete the whole package with the song. So working at that level has put me in a completely different place.

I'm a lot more sensitive about music, I think, than most other guys in this particular side of the business. Most of them are beat crazy and beat heavy. I'm more melody. I'm more musical than most of the other ones.