Quincy Jones
I travel like a maniac. I travel more than anyone I know. I love learning the languages.Collection: Learning
I lost my mother when I was 7 and they put her in a mental hospital. My brother and I watched her being taken away in a strait jacket. That's something you never forget. And my stepmother was like in the movie 'Precious.' I couldn't handle it. So I said to myself, 'I don't have a mother. I don't need one. I'm going to let music be my mother.'Collection: Music
Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing.Collection: Imagination
I think the attraction of 'American Idol' is about the basic human nature attitude that is, 'We can put you up there. But we can take you down.'Collection: Attitude
If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture.Collection: Architecture
I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music - gospel, blues, jazz and R&B - is the heart and soul of all popular music; and that we cannot afford to let this legacy slip into obscurity, I'm telling you.Collection: Music
Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.'Collection: Great
It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do.Collection: Amazing
Bebop and hip-hop, in so many ways, they're connected. A lot of rappers remind me so much of bebop guys in terms of improvisation, beats and rhymes. My dream is to see hip-hop incorporated in education. You've got the youth of the world in the palm of your hand.Collection: Education
Everybody, no matter what vocation they're looking at, should add music as an essential to their curriculum. Music can be a very important part of your soul and your growth as a human being. It's so powerful.Collection: Music
I never cared about money or fame, and I don't care now. I follow the groove, and money always follows.Collection: Money
I like all music. The only music I don't like is bad music.Collection: Music
Playing the game, and unfortunately, playing the gangster game is very profitable.
I believe in astrology as much as I do in genetics.
Melody is king, and don't you ever forget it. Lyrics appear to be out front, but they're not; they're just an accompanying factor. If they're good, you're really in good shape. Lyrics are written to be rewritten.
You make your mistakes to learn how to get to the good stuff.
I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.
Without the Fender bass, there'd be no rock n' roll or no Motown. The electric guitar had been waiting 'round since 1939 for a nice partner to come along. It became an electric rhythm section, and that changed everything.
After I learned the piano, I went on to learn percussion, the tuba, b-flat baritone, French horn, trombone, trumpet, most of the instruments in the orchestra. Trumpet was my instrument.
After every war, there was a significant change in the music, and I can understand how that happened. If you participate in protecting the country, you think you can be part of it, but you come back home and it's worse than ever.
I have all the tools and gadgets. I tell my son, who's a producer, 'You never work for the machine; the machine works for you.'
I was married for 36 years but now I'm free.
Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.
I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.
I believe that a hundred years from now, when people look back at the 20th century, they will look at Miles, Bird, Clifford Brown, Ella and Dizzy, among elders as our Mozarts, our Chopins, our Bachs and Beethovens.
A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top of that, you're really in great shape!
I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it.
My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door.
My son is a hip-hop producer.
The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.
I hope that on my tombstone it says 'Born 1933, died 2043.' I hope that's my legacy.
China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.
Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important.
I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.
I never felt like I had a mother.
I'm just a musician and a record producer.
I've met every freak in the business.
I was the most subtle person in the world.
All guys get into music because they love music and they also want to get the girls.
I don't remember feeling love.
Seattle is like a global gumbo, a melting pot with all kinds of people - the rich, the poor, white people, some Chinese, Filipino, Jewish and black people - they're all here.
When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out.
When I was 14, I was a passenger in a terrible accident.
I'd been in love before - I was always in love.
You cannot get an A if you're afraid of getting an F.
Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring.
I'm Pisces with Leo rising. The Pisces part is the dreamer. The Leo says, 'Let's execute.'
We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too.
I'm probably the only one in the world you can name that's worked with Billie Holiday, Louie Armstrong, Ella, Duke, Miles, Dizzy, Ray Charles, Aretha, Michael Jackson, rappers. 'Fly Me to the Moon' was played on the moon by Buzz Aldrin. Sinatra. Paul Simon. Tony Bennett. I'm the only one.
I met Ray Charles at 14, and he was 16. But he was like a hundred years older than me.