Herbie Hancock Quotes

People always want to protect what's really going on inside. They want to kind of make visible something that looks more pleasant than what may be happening inside of themselves.

I feel a lot more secure about the directions I take, than I might have, had I not practiced Buddhism.

While knowledge may provide useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future.

We need to move into a culture of peace. What I hope to promote is the idea that we all need each other and that the greatest happiness in life is not how much we have but how much we give. That's a wealth that's priceless. You can't buy compassion.

It's not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

So much of what I create has been due to the influence of Miles Davis and Donald Byrd, and so many of those that have passed on. Their music, their legacy lives on with the rest of us because we are so highly influenced by their experience and what they have given us.

It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

Music truly is the universal language.

The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom.

I look for what's of value and extract that. I don't look to criticize.

I hope that I can make good music out of whatever genre I go into. Just to prove to myself that I can.

When a human being is oppressed, the natural tendency is to feel anger. Jazz is a response to oppression that is not bullets and blood. Jazz is the expression of harmony ... and at the same time of hope and freedom.

I try to practice with my life.

Getting the Oscar had the biggest impression on me.

You can practice to learn a technique, but I'm more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.

I hope to use dialogue and culture as a means of bringing people of various cultures together, and using that as a way to resolve conflict.

The first thing I ever heard about synthesizers, they were being used in rock.

Buddhism has turned me on to my humanness, and is challenging my humanness so that I can become more human.

We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.

I've been curious ever since I was a little kid.

I learned the importance of being nonjudgmental, taking what happens and trying to make it work.That's something you should apply to life.

Since time is a continuum, the moment is always different, so the music is always different.

I think there's a great beauty to having problems. That's one of the ways we learn.

There's so much spontaneity involved, what do you practice? How do you practice teamwork? How do you practice sharing? How do you practice daring? How do you practice being nonjudgmental?

So I didn't actually change my name the way some people did.

I like to be on the edge, on the cutting edge, or be into the unknown, into the territory where I have to depend on being in the moment and depending on my instincts.

Technology has developed to a whole other level and theres the scientist part of me that loves that stuff.

Forget about trying to compete with someone else. Create your own pathway. Create your own new vision.

It's part of life to have obstacles. It's about overcoming obstacles; that's the key to happiness.

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom.

The arts have always served relationships between people of different cultures so well. In a way, the arts function as a very serious kind of ambassador.

In World War II, jazz absolutely was the music of freedom, and then in the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, same thing. It was all underground, but they needed the food of freedom that jazz offered.

I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

Globalization means we have to re-examine some of our ideas, and look at ideas from other countries, from other cultures, and open ourselves to them. And that's not comfortable for the average person.

One thing that attracted me to Buddhism was the support for this larger vision of values.

I'm aware that a lot of what is happening in jazz has not had a very dynamic change in a long time.

My father was really good with math. It's a funny thing, I don't remember my father or my mother being so mechanical-minded. My father always wanted to be a doctor, but he came from a really poor family in Georgia, and there was no way he was going to be a doctor.

You don't need the fame to be vital.

I think I was supposed to play jazz.

I've never really been interested in doing a solo piano tour.

Being a musician is what I do, but it's not what I am.

A jazz musician is not a jazz musician when he or she is eating dinner or when he or she is with his parents or spouse or neighbors. He's above all a human being . . . the true artform is being a human being.