Steve Lacy Quotes

You're a constant student, as a musician.

When I have the time at home, I'll practice three or four hours a day. I have to. And I'm a late starter; I started at age 17 and at age 51 I'm still learning.

There's something very particular about the kind of rage you feel when you're alone in a practice room by yourself, unable to master a simple thing like a rudiment.

I have to work at tunes to get them to come out. Sometimes I'll sit there for four or five hours and get absolutely nothing.

When I have a chunk of time that I can really dedicate to music, I really want to get into it. I want to do some really hard stuff and push myself.

Playing music is a lifetime's work. And if you want to carry on with it, you have to try to better yourself. You have to see where the music can take you.

You never stop trying to make progress as a musician.

I made music a priority every single day.

I think it's important for a young musician to stick with a band for a while and really work with a band and stay focused.

If at first you don't succeed - give it up. It isn't worth the pain.

I hate being wrong, and I hate when people give up.

Men do not fail; they give up trying.

If you look around at the people in show business today they are basically the people who didn't give up.

At one point in my 20s, I was about to quit acting. I'd had a crappy couple of years and I was depressed. My mom said, 'Don't give up! You'll be so mad at yourself.'

I found my first novel difficult. I don't want to make it sound like it's any more difficult than driving a cab or going to any other job, but there are so many opportunities for self-doubt, that you just kind of need to soldier on.

After my second-to-last record, 'The Greatest', I had gone on tour for a while, and I didn't play an instrument for about five years. And I got kind of - it's not self-esteem or whatever, or anger toward myself - but disappointed in myself that I hadn't been challenging myself to learn musically.

Don't get discouraged from all the rejection.

It's not a field, I think, for people who need to have success every day: if you can't live with a nightly sort of disaster, you should get out. I wouldn't describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that the ghosts you chase you never catch.

But what if I fail of my purpose here? It is but to keep the nerves at strain, to dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall, and baffled, get up and begin again.

If I'd been easily discouraged, I could have been a one-hit wonder.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough - when they are on the very brink of success.

You can't give up in any game, even if you are losing.

I've had some wins. And been knocked down with defeats. Glimpsed views from the top of the mountain. And walked through the darkest of valleys. But through this entire ride called 'a life' - I've refused to give up.

When I was younger, studying classical music, I really had to put in the time. Three hours a day is not even nice - you have to put in six.