Quincy Jones Quotes & Sayings

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

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. — Quincy Jones

When I was 14, I would sit up in my room and write till my eyes would bleed. — Quincy Jones

We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again. — Quincy Jones

Making a record is like painting a school bus with a toothbrush — Quincy Jones

If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture. — Quincy Jones

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

I'm just a musician and a record producer. — Quincy Jones

Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release. — Quincy Jones

It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do. — Quincy Jones

I travel like a maniac. I travel more than anyone I know. I love learning the languages. — Quincy Jones

Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring. — Quincy Jones

All guys get into music because they love music and they also want to get the girls. — Quincy Jones

Working with kids in Soweto in South Africa, it's rough out there. But the bottom line is you've got to go to know. In Cambodia, there are 10,000 landmines. Same in Afghanistan, same in Colombia. I'm totally addicted to traveling. — Quincy Jones

My father was a carpenter, a very good carpenter. He also worked for the Jones boys. They were not family members, we weren't related at all. They started the policy racket in Chicago, and they had the five and dime store. — Quincy Jones

I think the attraction of 'American Idol' is about the basic human nature attitude that is, 'We can put you up there. But we can take you down.' — Quincy Jones

I learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk. — Quincy Jones

We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old. — Quincy Jones

Thank God, 50 years ago I learned that a great song, our entire business is all based on two things; a great song and a great story. Film, television, if you don't have that story, nothing else matters. You don't call anybody else or direct anybody. The same with a song. A great song can make the worst singer in the world a star. — Quincy Jones

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

Unfortunately, America doesn't have a minister of culture, and I don't understand why. It's really bad for young people. — Quincy Jones

I believe in astrology as much as I do in genetics. — Quincy Jones

Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores. — Quincy Jones

Some summers my father would take us down to visit our grandmother in Louisville, who was an ex-slave, Susan Jones, and she had a shotgun shack they call it, and no electricity, a well in the back, a coal stove, kerosene lamps. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

Imagine what a harmonious world it ... — Quincy Jones

I was inspired by a lot of people when I was young. Every band that came through town, to the theater, or the dance hall. I was at every dance, every night club, listened to every band that came through, because in those days we didn't have MTV, we didn't have television. — Quincy Jones

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

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. — Quincy Jones

It has been proven time and time again in countless studies that students who actively participate in arts education are twice as likely to read for pleasure, have strengthened problem-solving and critical thinking skills, are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair ... — Quincy Jones

I was rapping in 1939. It's old. The roots are complex. And kids don't know. — Quincy Jones

The tragedy of Tupac is that his untimely passing is representative of too many young black men in this country....If we had lost Oprah Winfrey at 25, we would have lost a relatively unknown, local market TV anchorwoman. If we had lost Malcolm X at 25, we would have lost a hustler named Detroit Red. And if I had left the world at 25, we would have lost a big-band trumpet player and aspiring composer--just a sliver of my eventual life potential. — Quincy Jones

A song should have all the color and beauty of every rose. — Quincy Jones

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

To me it's no accident that all the symphony orchestras around the world tune up to the note A. And A is 440 cycles, except in Germany where it's 444. But the universe is 450 cycles. So what I'm trying to say is, I think it's God's voice, melody especially. Counterpoint, retrograde inversion, harmony ... that's the science and the craft. — Quincy Jones

I got in the school band and the school choir. It all hit me like a ton of bricks, everything just came out. I played percussion for a while, and stayed after school forever just tinkering around with different things, the clarinets and the violins. — Quincy Jones

When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out. — Quincy Jones

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

The relationship with a producer and an artist is really special.It's got to be love and respect, amazing mutual respect for each other, because that's what makes a good record. — Quincy Jones

My son is a hip-hop producer. — Quincy Jones

Music was the one thing I could control. It was the one world that offered me freedom. When I played music, my nightmares ended. My family problems disappeared. I didnt have to search for answers. The answers lay no further than the bell of my trumpet and my scrawled, pencilled scores. Music made me full, strong, popular, self-reliant and cool. — Quincy Jones

Empty the cup every time and it comes back at twice as full. I developed that attitude when I was very, very young, when I decided I didn't want to be a gangster anymore. Whether it's just shining shoes, I said okay, I'm going to do this better than anybody else did it in my life. — Quincy Jones

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day. — Quincy Jones

Young people should travel, and they don't. You can't know if you don't go. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

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! — Quincy Jones

I lost my mother when I was 7 and they put her in a mental hospital. My brother and I watched her being taken away in a strait jacket. That's something you never forget. And my stepmother was like in the movie 'Precious.' I couldn't handle it. So I said to myself, 'I don't have a mother. I don't need one. I'm going to let music be my mother.' — Quincy Jones

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

If I don't have a mother, I'll let music be my mother. — Quincy Jones

I believe that a hundred years from now, when people look back at the 20th century, they will look at Miles, Bird, Clifford Brown, Ella and Dizzy, among elders as our Mozarts, our Chopins, our Bachs and Beethovens. — Quincy Jones

When I was 13, I started working in a nightclub with Ray Charles. That's the greatest school in the world, the school of the streets. Ray taught me how to read in Braille. He was only two years older than me, but it was like he was 100 years older. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

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

I didn't understand key signatures or anything, you know. I'd say silly things at the top of a trumpet part like, 'Note, when you play B naturals, make the B naturals a half step lower because they sound funny if they're B naturals.' And some guy said: 'Idiot, just put a flat on the third line and it's a key signature, you know?' — Quincy Jones

Excellence isn't an act, it's a habit — Quincy Jones

It slaps your dignity just right. I loved the idea of these proud, dignified black men, and I saw the older ones wounded, and it wounded me ten times as much because I couldn't stand seeing them hurt like this. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

I don't ever want to grow up. That's boring. — Quincy Jones

Count Basie practically adopted me at 13. We became closer and closer and I ended up conducting for him and Sinatra. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

When you work with Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, and you tell them to jump without a net, you better know what you're talking about. Thank God I was ready for it. — Quincy Jones

I'm not a psychiatrist. — Quincy Jones

I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it. — Quincy Jones

I never felt like I had a mother. — Quincy Jones

Bebop and hip-hop, in so many ways, they're connected. A lot of rappers remind me so much of bebop guys in terms of improvisation, beats and rhymes. My dream is to see hip-hop incorporated in education. You've got the youth of the world in the palm of your hand. — Quincy Jones

You have to know that your real home is within. — Quincy Jones

When I was 14, I was a passenger in a terrible accident. — Quincy Jones

I'd been in love before - I was always in love. — Quincy Jones

Hell, nobody knows where jazz is going to go. There may be a kid right now in Chitlin Switch, Georgia, who is going to come along and upset everybody. — Quincy Jones

I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music - gospel, blues, jazz and R&B - is the heart and soul of all popular music; and that we cannot afford to let this legacy slip into obscurity, I'm telling you. — Quincy Jones

I've never been bored in my life, man. I've never been bored or lonely. Are you kidding? No way! I'm an orchestrator, a musician, a producer. I love everything. I've studied languages from Farsi to Greek to French, Swedish, Russian ... How can you get bored? — Quincy Jones

Louis 'Thunder Thumbs' Johnson was one of the greatest bass players to ever pick up the instrument, as a member of the Brothers Johnson, we shared decades of magical times working together in the studio and touring the world. From my albums 'Body Heat' and 'Mellow Madness,' to their platinum albums 'Look Out for #1,' 'Right On Time,' 'Blam' and 'Light Up the Night,' which I produced, to Michael's solo debut 'Off the Wall,' I considered Louis a core member of my production team. He was a dear and beloved friend and brother, and I will miss his presence and joy of life every day. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important. — Quincy Jones

Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together ... Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances into freedom, friendship, hope, and dignity. — Quincy Jones

I've met every freak in the business. — Quincy Jones

It's the attitude about life, man. Looking at the light instead of the dark. Looking at love instead of fear. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

After I learned the piano, I went on to learn percussion, the tuba, b-flat baritone, French horn, trombone, trumpet, most of the instruments in the orchestra. Trumpet was my instrument. — Quincy Jones

I was the most subtle person in the world. — Quincy Jones

I never felt like that in my life. I didn't know human beings played these instruments. I heard them in Chicago and Louisville and St. Louis all my life, you know? But I didn't know human beings played them, you know? So the next day I went to Coontz Junior High School and I started on sousaphone, tuba, B-flat baritone, E-flat alto, French horn, trombone. — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

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

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

Everybody has their idiosyncrasies. — Quincy Jones

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

I go to the favelas in Brazil. It's the same in the South Side of Chicago. It's the same, or just more violent. We're trying to get them to stop selling dope. You see kids with AK-47s, and nine-year-olds with nine millimeters. You know, they don't play. They make us look like nuns. — Quincy Jones

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

I'm probably the only one in the world you can name that's worked with Billie Holiday, Louie Armstrong, Ella, Duke, Miles, Dizzy, Ray Charles, Aretha, Michael Jackson, rappers. 'Fly Me to the Moon' was played on the moon by Buzz Aldrin. Sinatra. Paul Simon. Tony Bennett. I'm the only one. — Quincy Jones

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

You make your mistakes to learn how to get to the good stuff. — Quincy Jones

Benny [Carter] opened the eyes of a lot of producers and studios, so that they could understand that you could go to blacks for other things outside of blues and barbecue. He's a total musician. He was the pioneer, he was the foundation. He made it possible for that doubt to be taken away. — Quincy Jones

A bad song, the three best singers in the world cannot save it, and that's the bottom line. — Quincy Jones

Few rappers realize the genre sprang from West African griots through Delta slave songs to jazz poetry and the comedic trash talk of 'the dozens.' — Quincy Jones

Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing. — Quincy Jones

Without the Fender bass, there'd be no rock n' roll or no Motown. The electric guitar had been waiting 'round since 1939 for a nice partner to come along. It became an electric rhythm section, and that changed everything. — Quincy Jones

Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.' — Quincy Jones

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. — Quincy Jones

Editing while you're writing is like strangling the baby in the crib. — Quincy Jones