The Best Duke Ellington quotes

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. — Duke Ellington

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct. — Duke Ellington

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with. — Duke Ellington

Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself. — Duke Ellington

Jazz is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country. — Duke Ellington

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original. — Duke Ellington

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. — Duke Ellington

Love is supreme and unconditional. Like is nice, but limited. — Duke Ellington

Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven’t; there’s no proof of it. — Duke Ellington

Selfishness can be a virtue. Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves. — Duke Ellington

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music? — Duke Ellington

New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky. — Duke Ellington

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. — Duke Ellington

You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad. — Duke Ellington

Music is the tonal reflection of beauty. — Duke Ellington

There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone. — Duke Ellington

The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he. — Duke Ellington

Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It’s not an occupation or profession, it’s a compulsion. — Duke Ellington

You can’t write music right unless you know how the man that’ll play it plays poker. — Duke Ellington

Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one. — Duke Ellington

Hurry, get on board, it’s comin’, listen to those rails a–thrumming all aboard. Get on the ‘A’ train, soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem. — Duke Ellington

It’s like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something. — Duke Ellington

My biggest kick in music–playing or writing–is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything? — Duke Ellington

You’ve got to find some way of saying it without saying it. — Duke Ellington

A problem is A chAnce for you to do your best. — Duke Ellington

Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing. — Duke Ellington

Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees. — Duke Ellington

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don’t want it. — Duke Ellington

People do not retire. They are retired by others. — Duke Ellington

Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the popular, or what was the In thing. Even today, it is very hard to brainwash a Canadian. — Duke Ellington

A Satin Doll is a woman who is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside. — Duke Ellington

Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine. — Duke Ellington

Self–discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone. — Duke Ellington

The artist must say it without saying it. — Duke Ellington

Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it. — Duke Ellington