The Best Thelonious Monk quotes

Jazz is freedom. You think about that. — Thelonious Monk

Jazz is my adventure. — Thelonious Monk

I don’t have a definition of Jazz. You’re just supposed to know it when you hear it. — Thelonious Monk

Where’s jazz going? I don’t know. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens. — Thelonious Monk

Everybody in all countries tries to play jazz. — Thelonious Monk

If you really understand the meaning of be–bop, you understand the meaning of freedom. — Thelonious Monk

Be–bop wasn’t developed in any deliberate way. — Thelonious Monk

I can shoot pool, and I can play ping–pong. I’m pretty good at those games. — Thelonious Monk

It can’t be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean! — Thelonious Monk

I never though much about race. — Thelonious Monk

The only cats worth anything are the cats that take chances. — Thelonious Monk

There are no wrong notes; some are just more right than others. — Thelonious Monk

Anybody talented in any way–they’re called eccentric. — Thelonious Monk

Jazz is my adventure. I’m after new chords, new ways of syncopating, new figures, new runs. How to use notes differently. That’s it. Just using notes differently. — Thelonious Monk

The majority of juice–heads and winos and junkies arent musicians. — Thelonious Monk

A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination. — Thelonious Monk

I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself. — Thelonious Monk

Those who want to know what sound goes into my music should come to NY and open their ears. — Thelonious Monk

I find my inspiration in myself. — Thelonious Monk

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. — Thelonious Monk

Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by… What you don’t play can be more important than what you do. — Thelonious Monk

Just because you’re not a drummer doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep time. — Thelonious Monk

I don’t know what other people are doing–I just know about me. — Thelonious Monk

The piano ain’t got no wrong notes. — Thelonious Monk

The inside of the tune [the bridge] is the part that makes the outside sound good. — Thelonious Monk

I always believed in being myself. — Thelonious Monk

I’d go stupid collecting and counting my money. — Thelonious Monk

All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians. — Thelonious Monk

Sometimes it’s to your advantage for people to think you’re crazy. — Thelonious Sphere Monk

Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it. — Thelonious Monk

It’s always night, or we wouldn’t need light. — Thelonious Monk

I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public want–you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing–even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years. — Thelonious Monk

Man, that cat [Ornette Coleman] is nuts. — Thelonious Monk

I played the wrong wrong notes. — Thelonious Monk