Quincy Jones Quotes

My earliest memories are being pinned to a fence with a switchblade.

I found this out over the years, that racism is a thinly veiled disguise over economics and money. It really is.

I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it.

The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.

My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door.

It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play.

We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too.

What happens when you get a big break and you haven't prepared yourself? That becomes the biggest mistake you've ever made. I see it happen all the time.

When you're over the hill, that's when you pick up speed.

Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind.

You cannot get an A if you're afraid of getting an F.

Michael (Jackson) was so shy, he'd sit down and sing behind the couch with his back to me while I sat with my hands over my eyes-and the lights off.

I'm a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.

I improvised my life along the way - I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.

Making a record is like painting a school bus with a toothbrush

I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe.

It was messed up, because in 1947 my family moved to Seattle and I had to get up at 5:00 o'clock in the morning to catch the ferry back to Bremerton every morning because I was Boys Club president.

I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth."

Prince.. a true artist in every sense of the world.Gone way too soon.

A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top of that, you're really in great shape!

China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.

A lot of the guys were like that - Oscar Pettiford - they just took me under their wing, and that's why I automatically help young people. I just love it, because they did that for me.

I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because its not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.

Eight kids and a stepmother, and I just wanted to be out of there and so when I got a scholarship from Boston to the Schillinger House, which is now the Berklee School of Music, I couldn't wait to get out of there.

I chose the trombone because the trombone players in the marching band got to be up front with the majorettes (because of the slides) and I loved that!

If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle.

All the jazz guys had interracial relationships, and even the ladies did. Over the years, interracial relationships have been a hip, almost defiant thing, a way of saying "Nobody can put a boundary around me."

My son is a hip-hop producer.

You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.

A person's age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.

Whenever a woman would come too close, I would cut her off. Part of that was vindictive - but that was totally subconscious.

I look back and say, "This must have been somebody else." I am not going to tell you that when I was 4, I dreamed about all of this.

I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.

I'm a tremendous believer and supporter in hip-hop and rap.

I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.

There’s nothing in the world worse than having an opportunity that you’re not prepared for. Good luck usually follows the collision of opportunity and preparation - it’s a result of that collision. You’ve got to be prepared. So, make your mistakes now and make them quickly. If you’ve made the mistakes, you know what to expect the next time. That’s how you become valuable.

After every war, there was a significant change in the music, and I can understand how that happened. If you participate in protecting the country, you think you can be part of it, but you come back home and it's worse than ever.

I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.

Everybody has their idiosyncrasies.

My dream is to put together a performance of the evolution of black music with Cirque du Soleil . I would also like to do street opera and children's books. But even as I work toward these things, I want to simplify my life.

I've been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism. I believed in my dreams because they were my only option. The people who make it to the top are addicted to their calling. You have to honor the gift God has given you. The people who get the call are the ones who'd be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren't being paid.

I was raised in Chicago and I guess that was one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters of all colors. That was the Detroit of the gangster world. The car industry was thugs.

I used to practice piano for hours, and now, with a synthesizer, you can input the music and the machine perfects the song. That's why we have so many people in the music business who should be plumbers. They don't really understand music because they haven't been trained.

Did you know you would become as successful as you have? Hell, no. But you know what? You were prepared, baby.

Not one ounce of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.

Billy Strayhorn wrote Multicolored Blue. Billy to me is the boss of the arrangers.

Let's not get too full of ourselves. Let's leave space for God to come into the room.