Quotes by Dizzy Gillespie

“I dont care much about music. What I like is sounds.”

“I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. Its time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. Its time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.”

“. . .I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons were here is to be a part of this process of exchange.”

“Ideas, ideas, backward and forward. His influence is layers and layers of spirit.”

“It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.”

“[Another friend is Jimmy Heath, who wrote a composition called] Without You, No Me, ... He said, Without Dizzy there wouldnt have been a Jimmy Heath. I feel the same way, because without Dizzy there wouldnt have been a James Moody.”

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - its a really stupid thing to want to do”

“It happens very rarely, but when it happens its worth waiting for, that the instrument becomes part of your body.”

Know him know me.

I dont care much about music. What I like is sounds.