Herbie Hancock Quotes

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

Don't be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That's where the joy and the adventure lie.

You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.

Music is the tool to express life - and all that makes a difference.

Forget about trying to compete with someone else. Create your own pathway. Create your own new vision.

I think there's a great beauty to having problems. That's one of the ways we learn.

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

The most valuable things in life are priceless. They are courage, compassion, wisdom, respect for ourselves and others, and a host of characteristics that we call the beauty of the human spirit.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

I like to be on the edge, on the cutting edge, or be into the unknown, into the territory where I have to depend on being in the moment and depending on my instincts.

Life is not about finding our limitations, it's about finding our infinity.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

People always want to protect what's really going on inside. They want to kind of make visible something that looks more pleasant than what may be happening inside of themselves.

Jazz is a music that is open enough to borrow from any other form of music, and has the strength to influence any other form of music.

Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

You don't need the fame to be vital.

I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music.

Of course, it's not the technique that makes the music; it's the sensitivity of the musician and his ability to be able to fuse his life with the rhythm of the times. This is the essence of music.

It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

I look for what's of value and extract that. I don't look to criticize.

I learned the importance of being nonjudgmental, taking what happens and trying to make it work.That's something you should apply to life.

The arts have always served relationships between people of different cultures so well. In a way, the arts function as a very serious kind of ambassador.

But I have to be careful not to let the world dazzle me so much that I forget that I'm a husband and a father.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

Since time is a continuum, the moment is always different, so the music is always different.

All you have to do is play one note. But it needs to be the right note.

So in other words, we were constantly challenged to grow, and thats what a master does.

We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.

I'm always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.

I don't go around, the way many musicians do, with earbuds in my ear listening to my iPod all day and just sticking my head in the music all the time.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

I hope that I can make good music out of whatever genre I go into. Just to prove to myself that I can.

One thing that attracted me to Buddhism was the support for this larger vision of values.

It's part of life to have obstacles. It's about overcoming obstacles; that's the key to happiness.

The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom.

I've been curious ever since I was a little kid.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

Creativity shouldn't be following radio; it should be the other way around.

We can all be ourselves, be true to ourselves, and all be together.

You can change your character and, at the same time, change your fortune.

My first Grammy wasn't even in a jazz category, but of course I was really excited. 'Rockit' was the beginning of kind of a new era for the whole hip-hop movement.

I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

There's so much spontaneity involved, what do you practice? How do you practice teamwork? How do you practice sharing? How do you practice daring? How do you practice being nonjudgmental?

I think I was supposed to play jazz.

Buddhism has turned me on to my humanness, and is challenging my humanness so that I can become more human.

While knowledge may provide useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future.

When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.