Quincy Jones Quotes
Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind.
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.
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.
I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth."
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.'
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.
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.
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.
I found this out over the years, that racism is a thinly veiled disguise over economics and money. It really is.
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.
You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.
The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.
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!
I improvised my life along the way - I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.
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.
Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important.
China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.
Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.
Did you know you would become as successful as you have? Hell, no. But you know what? You were prepared, baby.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A person's age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.
It's the attitude about life, man. Looking at the light instead of the dark. Looking at love instead of fear.
My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door.
My brother died of cancer two years ago (1998), renal cell carcinoma. He was my only real brother and I didn't know what to do. I'd never been so desperate in my life.
