Nat King Cole Quotes

Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.

I can't bear to see myself even in movies. The feeling is complex. I can't stand the sight of myself.

I ... started out to become a jazz pianist; in the meantime I started singing and I sang the way I felt and that's just the way it came out.

The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

I got the message. All of us get the message, sooner or later. If you get it before it's too late or before you're too old, you'll pull through all right.

You've got to change with the public's taste.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

I'm in the music business for one purpose - to make money.

If you smile through your fear and sorrow, smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come shining through for you.

The Supreme Court is having a hard time integrating schools. What chance do I have to integrate audiences?

I was a guinea pig for some hoodlums who thought they could hurt me and frighten me and keep other Negro entertainers from the South.

If you ever plan to motor west, travel my way, take the highway that is best. Get your kicks, on Route Sixty-six.

I'm proud of our court. It knocks back a lot of the propaganda the Communists put out about the way America treats her Negroes.

I'm a businessman. I work for business people. The kind of thing they say is: Now we've sold a lot of records, let's sell some more.

There's just one thing I can't figure out. My income tax!

I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.

Primarily I'm a meat man, although once in a while I toy with a few vegetables.

It's not the people in the South who create racial problems - it's the people who are governing.

I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

Only time, education and plenty of good schooling will make anti-segregation work.

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

Critics don't buy records. They get 'em free.

The only sport I'm not interested in is horse racing. That's because I don't know the horses personally.

I'm a musician at heart. I know I'm not really a singer. I couldn't compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it.

When I first organized the King Cole Trio back in 1937, we were strictly what you would call an instrumental group. To break the monotony, I would sing a few songs here and there between the playing. I sang things I had known over the years. I wasn't trying to give it any special treatment, just singing. I noticed thereafter people started requesting more singing, and it was just one of those things.

The only prejudice I've found anywhere in TV is in some advertising agencies, and there isn't so much prejudice as just fear.

Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking.

Although it's been said many times, many ways...Merry Christmas to you!

I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.

If I could read it, I could play it.

Unforgettable in every way, and forever more, that's how you'll stay.

Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.

Smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see that life is still worth while if you just smile

I felt something impossible for me to explain in words. Then, when they took her away, it hit me. I got scared all over again and began to feel giddy. Then it came to me... I was a father.

I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

People don't slip. Time catches up with them.

I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music.

I'm not playing for other musicians. We're trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We'll keep him happy.