Herbie Hancock Quotes

One of the most important functions of jazz has been to encourage a hope for freedom, for people living in situations of intolerance or struggle.

There's something about singing that I just love. It makes me feel freer than anything in the world.

In that first blow to the deaf walls of those who have everything, the blood of our people, our blood, ran generously to wash away injustice. To live, we die. Our dead once again walked the way of truth. Our hope was fertilized with mud and blood.

I have always thought of music as a highway with many lanes.

I think the most important thing about music is the sense of escape.

To me, music has to be about freedom. It's the most important thing in my life.

Well, jazz is to me, a complete lifestyle. It's bigger than a word. It's a much bigger force than just something that you can say. It's something that you have to feel. It's something that you have to live.

An attack upon our ability to tell stories is not just censorship - it is a crime against our nature as human beings.

They will wrest 'dull words' from my cold dead hands.

If I'm going to be a caged bird, I'll sing the best song I can.

Music is something no one can control.

What I love about jazz is the improvisation, the fact that you never know what's going to happen next.

You can't play music and be mad at anybody. It'll show in your heart!

Jazz is pretty much the freest thing you can be a part of. It's the closest thing I can get to flying. It's fun, interactive. In its own way, it's a sport.

Music is a spiritual event and a means to realize freedom.

Jazz music is the power of now.

Art is the highest form of hope.

There is only one thing I hope to see before I die, and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore.

Jazz is democracy in music.

The piano ain't got no wrong notes.

Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed...It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality.

This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.

We must never give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us, draw this line so that New York will never become New Mecca.

To die hating them, that was freedom.

Jazz brought this sense of democracy where four guys come together and your name may be on the marquee, but in this moment, when you're the soloist, it's you, and we follow you. We follow you.