Ornette Coleman Quotes

Somebody's got to be last. Somebody's going to be first.

I don't know if he was the fourth man or the fifth, but he was certainly in the top 10.

Being first doesn’t mean anything unless there is a second.

With studio work, I'm always the bottom man on the totem pole.

Having two older brothers is a healthy reminder that you're always closer to the bottom than you are to the top.

Order, unity, and continuity are human inventions, just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias.

In terms of getting people to experiment more and take more risk, there are at least three things that immediately come to my mind. Number one, of course, is role-modeling it yourself. Number two is, when people take intelligent, smart risks and yet it doesn't work out, not shooting them. And number three, being honest with yourself.

It does you no good to see the number two or number three man in the corporation-you have to get through to number one.

Nearly everything in life goes in threes and fours.

And what is the greatest number? Number one.

In America everything's about who's number one today.

Order is a necessary condition for anything the human mind is to understand.

There are three things that are important for a film. Number one is story, number two is story, number three is story. Good actors can save a bad script and make it bearable, but good actors can't make a bad script good - they can just make it bearable.

Number one, like yourself. Number two, you have to eat healthy. And number three, you've got to squeeze your buns. That's my formula.

I'm going to be working the next 25 or 30 years. People like me, if we want, number one, for no benefit reductions for our parents and our grandparents, number two, for the system to survive and exist for us, and, more importantly, number three, for the system to exist for us children, we are going to have to make reforms to that system.

Number one, cash is king... number two, communicate... number three, buy or bury the competition.

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.

If you want to invest in us, we believe customer number one, employee number two, shareholder number three. If they don't want to buy that, that's fine. If they regret, they can sell us.

Only so many can succeed. Only one can be number one.

You have to think that if you're starting first instead of 31st you've got a better chance to win.

Number one is my faith, number two my family, number three is my friends, and number four, my fans.

Although the last, not least.

If A were not allowed his better position, B would be even worse off than he is.

There's an essential order you have to follow in everything. It's a way of showing respect, following everything in the correct order.

Since we're neither at the bottom nor at the top, we must be in the middle.