Kurt Elling Quotes

I never did feel any pressure in Jamaica. You just someone, not nobody big.

I feel like I have time to think when I'm in L.A. There's something about the spaciousness of it.

I have a place in Chicago and I get there as much as I can... The city is so unbelievably beautiful. It's one of the greatest cities on the planet. My heart beats differently when I'm in Chicago. It slows down and I feel more at ease.

There's a lot of freedom for me living in L.A.

L.A. is a vortex. The weather there tricks you into thinking you're on vacation, even when you're working fourteen hours a day.

L.A.'s kind of, like, seven really cool towns. It's so laid-back. If you go in the right spot, you can walk around, and you don't need a car.

My favorite thing about L.A. is the sunny breezes that mimic the mindset of the energy in the people.

I like L.A. because of the light. The light makes me feel so good. It's really beautiful. And there's something about L.A. being so spread out that gives you a feeling of freedom. Light and freedom.

I am back in Los Angeles after a very successful run in Chicago as Billy Flynn.

Being in L.A. has definitely given me the opportunity to experience how my music sounds in real life because I can drive around and listen to the mixes, which I couldn't do in New York. I get to feel how a song works in combination with a sunset and a drive through the mountains.

I love Los Angeles. It reinvents itself every two days.

I lived in Chicago in the early '80s and did a ton of theater, and then Nick lived there in the '90s and did a ton of theater. Then we both moved to L.A. and did a ton of television.

In New York, you walk everywhere, so you're amongst people all of the time, and everybody is in a hurry and going somewhere or has something on their minds. And in L.A., it's still much more of a laid-back life, at least in my experience.

Texas is more laid back, like Denmark is. So it was easier to adjust to that than to Los Angeles or New York for me.

Aside from being a fighter, I am a relaxed person. It is a lifestyle thing for me. I don't stress too much.

I just chill. I don't stand outside too much. I do what I gotta do and chill, man, know what I'm saying? That's all. It's cool.

What I always look for is someone that really knew how to lean up against a bar, get a drink, sit on a barstool. When people are in bars they're relaxed. No real right angles - it's slow moves, it's slow conversations. You can tell a loud joke, but everyone's very relaxed. I never would pick somebody nervous or twitchy. If I found guys with beards, I'd ask them, don't trim the edges, don't go in and manicure yourself up. I always look for people that look like they're comfortable in their own skin, that wouldn't feel like it was the first time they were ever in a bar.

Everywhere you look in L.A., you're reminded of what you're a part of - or what you're not a part of. And everyone you meet is talking about the same thing all the time.

But it's Sunday, Mr. Bell. Clocks are slow on Sundays.

Lighten up while you still can, don't even try to understand. Just find a place to make your stand, and take it easy.

Who will free me from hurry, flurry, the feeling of a crowd pushing behind me, of being hustled and crushed? How can I regain even for a minute the feeling of ample leisure I had during my early, my creative years? Then I seldom felt fussed, or hurried. There was time for work, for play, for love, the confidence that if a task was not done at the appointed time, I easily could fit it into another hour. I used to take leisure for granted, as I did time itself.

If New York is the City That Never Sleeps, then Los Angeles is the City That's Always Passed Out on the Couch.

Luxury, to me, is not owning a lot of stuff. Luxury, to me, is feeling unrushed.

A cheery relaxation is man's natural state, just as nature itself is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.

You don't need a vacation when there's nothing to escape from.