Wynton Marsalis Quotes

I practise about three to four hours a day and I will play one night a week, or at the weekend in a competition.

Acting is like a game of tennis. The better your opponent, the better you're going to play.

The one thing I do know is that I'm the best Taylor Hawkins drummer there is, and that is all I can hope to be. And when it comes to music, musicianship and skill, there is no such thing as better or worse because so much is personal opinion, and I can see that now.

I always wanted to play against the best.

I'm not a huge practicer, which is probably not a good thing because my band definitely needs to practice.

I don't know about five guys against the world. It's more like five guys against these three chords, and we're gonna wrestle 'em down no matter what it takes.

I think the challenges for me was to go into the studio with these incredible jazz players and come up to their level of excellence. That's always a challenge.

I listen to all sorts of music, but I'm not musically talented. Everyone expects me to be a good singer or musician, but I really am terrible. I'm a great dancer, though.

I don't think it's about playing and singing, to be honest. That seems like old news, you know? I wasn't thinking about that. I just think that's in my body now. Dancers don't think about their legs moving one way and their arms moving another. Over time, you incorporate that into your instrument.

I can perform easily; I don't mind getting up in front of people at all. I've always sung and felt confident about that, and guitar playing isn't a stretch, but songwriting is. We all have our challenges in what we do, and that's mine.

I am not a trained singer, but when I was offered to sing for 'LPNY,' I took it up as a challenge.

I always played my best when I respected my opponent and was a little scared of them because they could beat me. Every game I played in college, that was the case.

For me it's a great challenge to play against the best.

Every time we do a new record, we do the best we can. For us, every record is stepping into the ring with another heavyweight champion.

I've always prided myself on doing different types of matches with different opponents.

I am not confident unless I am playing someone else.

You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.

As players we know pressure is part and parcel of what we do.

It's always pressure in sport. It was a lot of pressure since Day 1 in Orlando, and it's going to be always pressure, but I think those pressures make us better.

I've just had this idea pop in my head of trying to learn a new song every da, and try and play it that night. That's been fun for me because it's a little bit of a scary adventure, playing a song for the first time in front of people and letting it just be what it is.

When you're a competitor, you just want to go against the best.

I don't do much relaxing. When I'm not giving a recital I practise.

Regardless of the magnitude, the crowd, or the pay-per-view sales, the goal is to beat the guy in front of me.

When you play constantly for strong sides, then the pressure is always on you.