Quincy Jones Quotes

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

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

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

Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I’m needed by someone. As long as you have that, you’re healthy.

If I don’t have a mother, I’ll let music be my mother.

I got to trumpet, finally. That’s why I love to write for brass, and [Count] Basie and [Frank] Sinatra and all that stuff, ’cause that’s just like part of my DNA.

I was married for 36 years but now I’m free.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.