Duke Ellington Quotes

Once I began doing stand-up, I didn't get a kick out of the applause or being the centre of attention - but I did get a kick out of the jigsaw puzzle aspect of it, searching for the right bit, adding another few pieces each night until the bigger picture appears. That's the appeal: the challenge of it.

It is really hard to do comedy; it takes a lot of energy and focus. It's rather like music: It's a lot of hitting notes precisely.

Diplomacy is a little bit like Jazz. It’s improvisation on a theme.

I'm undefeated in Scrabble. I can figure out an opponent's strategy and mold mine to offset theirs. I play a couple times a week, and I'll often play a game on my bed by myself against myself, which I realize sounds completely mad.

It's like jazz: You learn the rules to break them - as long as you can break them in a meaningful way.

I really enjoy listening to players on the cusp of swing into bebop like Charlie Shavers, Clifford Brown and Clark Terry. They balance immense facility on their instrument with rhythm, melody, and more complex harmonies of the time.

I'm a terrible Scrabble player.

Jazz shouldn't have any mandates. Jazz is not supposed to be something that's required to sound like jazz. For me, the word 'jazz' means, 'I dare you.'

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation.

Jazz is one of the least learnable art forms.

I really like the complexity of jazz, the emotional depth; I feel like there's no other music that's really as satisfying as jazz.

To me, jazz is the closest thing to insanity that there is in music.

I cherish each director that I have. I want to be maneuvered out of my comfort zones. I don't have the time to prepare.

Jazz music just resonates with the frequency of me.

Every ‘mistake’ is an opportunity in jazz.

The rhythm of life is a jazz rhythm

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.

Trane was the perfect saxophonist for Monk's music because of the space that Monk always used. Trane could fill up all that space with all them chords and sounds he was playing then.

We're playing Scrabble. It's a nightmare." "Scrabble?" He sounds surprised. "Scrabble's great." "Not when you're playing with a family of geniuses, it's not. They all put words like 'iridiums'. And I put 'pig'.

Does Batman ever NOT have a plan...?

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest. But what does he do if there is no forest? He grows a forest to hide it in.

If you're going to decipher a hidden code from a complex set of different mazes, I'm pretty sure you need a girl's brain running the show.

Jazz musicians are so comfortable. The reason they can't do what we do is because they're so comfortable doin' what they do.