Thelonious Monk Quotes & Sayings

You've got to dig it to dig it, you dig? — Thelonious Monk

I never though much about race. — Thelonious Monk

I'd go stupid collecting and counting my money. — Thelonious Monk

Anybody talented in any way - they're called eccentric. — Thelonious Monk

They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it. — Thelonious Monk

Those who want to know what sound goes into my music should come to NY and open their ears. — Thelonious Monk

At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself, to be illogical and incoherent by getting rid of structure and simply piling a lot of notes one on top of the other. There's no beat anymore. You can't keep time with your foot. I believe that what is happening to jazz with people like Ornette Coleman, for instance, is bad. There's a new idea that consists in destroying everything and find what's shocking and unexpected; whereas jazz must first of all tell a story that anyone can understand. — Thelonious Monk

We have two kids, my wife and myself. — Thelonious Monk

All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians. — Thelonious Monk

I played the wrong wrong notes. — Thelonious Monk

A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination. — Thelonious Monk

Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by ... What you don't play can be more important than what you do. — Thelonious Monk

The only cats worth anything are the cats that take chances. — Thelonious Monk

The loudest noise in the world is silence. — Thelonious Monk

Everybody in all countries tries to play jazz. — Thelonious Monk

I'm famous. Ain't that a bitch? — Thelonious Monk

Everyone is a genius at being themselves — Thelonious Monk

Jazz is my adventure. — Thelonious Monk

I find my inspiration in myself. — Thelonious Monk

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom. — Thelonious Monk

The majority of juice-heads and winos and junkies arent musicians. — Thelonious Monk

Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it. — Thelonious Monk

I made the wrong mistakes — Thelonious Monk

I guess, you know, if I didn't make it with the piano, I guess I would've been the biggest bum. — Thelonious Monk

The piano ain't got no wrong notes. — Thelonious Monk

Just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean you don't have to keep time. — Thelonious Monk

When I was a kid, some of the guys would try to get me to hate white people for what they've been doing to Negroes, and for a while I tried real hard. But every time I got to hating them, some white guy would come along and mess the whole thing up. — Thelonious Monk

I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it. — Thelonious Monk

I don't consider myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can't develop any further. But I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself. Take a musician like John Coltrane. He is a perfect musician, who can give expression to all the possibilities of his instrument. But he seems to have difficulty expressing original ideas on it. That is why he keeps looking for ideas in exotic places. At least I don't have that problem, because, like I say, I find my inspiration in myself. — Thelonious Monk

I didn't know there were 2 ten o'clocks in a day ... — Thelonious Monk

A genius is the one most like himself. — Thelonious Monk

I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself. — Thelonious Monk

Trying to explain music is like trying to dance architecture. — Thelonious Monk

Monk's reasons for dancing during a performance: "I get tired sitting down at the piano! That way I can dig the rhythm better. — Thelonious Monk

Be-bop wasn't developed in any deliberate way. — Thelonious Monk

Where's jazz going? I don't know. Maybe it's going to hell. You can't make anything go anywhere. It just happens. — Thelonious Monk

I was playing birthday parties. House-rent parties where they used to sell whisky during prohibition. — Thelonious Monk

I can shoot pool, and I can play ping-pong. I'm pretty good at those games. — Thelonious Monk

Jazz is my adventure. I'm after new chords, new ways of syncopating, new figures, new runs. How to use notes differently. That's it. Just using notes differently. — Thelonious Monk

Jazz is freedom. You think about that. — Thelonious Monk

I always believed in being myself. — Thelonious Monk

All musicians are potential band leaders. — Thelonious Monk

I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing - even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years. — Thelonious Monk

Miles'd got killed if he hit me. — Thelonious Monk

Man, that cat [Ornette Coleman] is nuts. — Thelonious Monk

Sometimes it's to your advantage for people to think you're crazy — Thelonious Monk

There are no wrong notes; some are just more right than others. — Thelonious Monk

You've been making the wrong mistakes. — Thelonious Monk

The inside of the tune [the bridge] is the part that makes the outside sound good. — Thelonious Monk

I have to listen to New York; I live there. I wasn't born there, but I've been living there all my life. — Thelonious Monk

I don't know what other people are doing - I just know about me. — Thelonious Monk

It can't be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean! — Thelonious Monk

It's always night, or we wouldn't need light. — Thelonious Monk

After two takes you're imitating yourself. — Thelonious Monk