Toots Thielemans Quotes

I remember when I was little, my mom asked me, 'Would you like to play the violin or the piano?' I looked at that giant monster and said to myself - I am not going to lock myself on that bench the whole day. This is small and lightweight. I can play from standing, sitting or walking.

But the guitar, when you think about it, is the most versatile, really. I mean you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go.

I've lived a very nomadic life, which I enjoy.

I'm a vagabond. I have a suitcase that is ready to go at a moment's notice. The thought of being in one place for a long time, or playing one character for a long time, is terrifying for me.

My yoga mat comes everywhere. Keeps me stretched out after sitting still on all those planes, trains and road journeys.

I reached a point towards the end on the old heart where I had trouble getting out of a chair. All I wanted to do was get out of bed in the morning and walk to my office and sit back down in the chair. Now I throw 50 pound bags of horse feed in the back of my pickup truck and I don't even think about it. I'm back doing those things.

To me, the greatest invention of my lifetime is the laptop computer and the fact that I can be working on a book and be in an airport lounge, in a hotel room, and continue working; I fire up my laptop, and I'm in exactly the same place I was when I left home - that, to me, is a miracle.

I don't get jet lagged that much. I'm so used to traveling and being in different places every day that I can sleep anywhere.

I've always been pretty nomadic.

When traveling with someone, take large does of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee.

I go through about 140 cities a year.

I just work a lot. I just remember recording in a hotel room in Malaysia. I work on planes, I work on buses. A lot of times when I'm backstage in the hotel or on the bus, I would have new ideas.

Often, I'll do a quick workout in my hotel room consisting of exercises for the legs, glutes, abs, and arms with my own body weight. Also, I always have a jump rope, a medicine ball I can inflate, and a band in my suitcase. It's a great kit to have for travel.

I'm always ready to go back on the road.

It's not easy, but I'm really enjoying what I am doing. One day I am in Chennai, the other in Mumbai, then in Coimbatore. But I love my job, and I am really passionate about my work.

I'm lucky in the sense that I can write wherever I am - on the bus, in the hotel room, backstage, sitting at home.

If a hotel has a microwave, I always get a sweet potato and make sure I have a fork and I can microwave a sweet potato. Seven minutes, and I can do that. You really learn how to eat on the road.

Pray be always in motion. Early in the morning go and see things; and the rest of the day go and see people. If you stay but a week at a place, and that an insignificant one, see, however, all that is to be seen there; know as many people, and get into as many houses as ever you can.

I've been lucky enough to go back and forth.

I live out of a bag. I just looked at what's going on for me, I'm not gonna be back in England for more than a week between now and March of next year, I think, which is crazy. By that time the lease is up on my apartment! I'm getting a kick out of being homeless.

We'd done a couple of road trips with my big chair, and it was such a hassle if we didn't have the van with the foldout ramp. I figured: There's got to be some option that I can use on the go. Now I can go anywhere with my friends, which is a big, life-changing thing. I can sit on it for as long as I need to.

Successful people have control over the time in their life. A shoemaker who owns his own shop gets up one morning and says, "I'm not opening." That's a successful guy.

The harp sounds at each passing breeze, but that does not mean the tune is masterfully played.

Morn, Wak'd by the circling hours, with rosy hand Unbarr'd the gates of light.

I guess I should be more ambitious about practicing, but when I'm out on the road, that's about all I do.