Quincy Jones Quotes

The tragedy of Tupac is that his untimely passing is representative of too many young black men in this country....If we had lost Oprah Winfrey at 25, we would have lost a relatively unknown, local market TV anchorwoman. If we had lost Malcolm X at 25, we would have lost a hustler named Detroit Red. And if I had left the world at 25, we would have lost a big-band trumpet player and aspiring composer--just a sliver of my eventual life potential.

Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind.

You have to know that your real home is within.

La edad de una persona puede determinarse por el grado de dolor que experimenta cuando entra en contacto con una idea nueva

Once a task has just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.

God walks out of the room when you’re thinking about money.” —Quincy Jones

The only justification for looking down on anyone, is that you're going to stop and pick them up.

Well, listen, anger doesn't get anything done, so you have to find out: How do you make it work? That's why I was always maniacal about transforming every problem into a puzzle which I can solve. I can solve a puzzle—a problem just stresses me out.

I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying “Ain’t that the truth

Learn to deal with the valleys, the hills will take care of themselves.

Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me

It’s amazing, the psychology of growing in your field, no matter what you do. Growth comes from mistakes. You have to cherish them, so you can learn from them. Your mistakes are your greatest gift.

These are things like Michael Jackson's Thriller, an album that was (1) produced by Quincy Jones, (2) features guitar playing by Eddie Van Halen, (3) includes at least three singles that ooze awesomeness, and (4) has the single best bass line from the entire 1980s (i.e., the opening of "Billie Jean"). It is a "guilty pleasure," presumably, because 45 million people liked it, and because Jackson is quite possibly a pedophile, a d because two dancers had a really unfair knife fight in the video for "Beat It." This is akin to considering Thomas Jefferson a "guilty pleasure" among presidents because he briefly owned a pet bear. I mean, he still wrote the fucking Declaration of Independence, you know?

attempting to close the gaps between genres has allowed me to defy what is traditionally possible. I’ve never stayed within a single lane. Instead, as soon as I reach the end of one, I hop right on over to the next. I’ve tried my best to encourage musicians to do the same by inviting them to collaborate with other artists they would normally never think to work with. You can

There’s a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and get lost in a sea of blue. A Jersey-accented voice says, “It’s about time, kid,” and Frank Sinatra rattles the ice in his glass of Jack Daniel’s. Looking at the swirling deep-brown liquid, he whispers, “Ain’t it beautiful?” This is my introduction to the Chairman of the Board. We spend the next half hour talking Jersey, Hoboken, swimming in the Hudson River and the Shore. We then sit down for dinner at a table with Robert De Niro, Angie Dickinson and Frank and his wife, Barbara. This is all occurring at the Hollywood “Guinea Party” Patti and I have been invited to, courtesy of Tita Cahn. Patti had met Tita a few weeks previous at the nail parlor. She’s the wife of Sammy Cahn, famous for such songs as “All The Way,” “Teach Me Tonight” and “Only the Lonely.” She called one afternoon and told us she was hosting a private event. She said it would be very quiet and couldn’t tell us who would be there, but assured us we’d be very comfortable. So off into the LA night we went. During the evening, we befriend the Sinatras and are quietly invited into the circle of the last of the old Hollywood stars. Over the next several years we attend a few very private events where Frank and the remaining clan hold forth. The only other musician in the room is often Quincy Jones, and besides Patti and I there is rarely a rocker in sight. The Sinatras are gracious hosts and our acquaintance culminates in our being invited to Frank’s eightieth birthday party dinner. It’s a sedate event at the Sinatras’ Los Angeles home. Sometime after dinner, we find ourselves around the living room piano with Steve and Eydie Gorme and Bob Dylan. Steve is playing the piano and up close he and Eydie can really sing the great standards. Patti has been thoroughly schooled in jazz by Jerry Coker, one of the great jazz educators at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. She was there at the same time as Bruce Hornsby, Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny, and she learned her stuff. At Frank’s, as the music drifts on, she slips gently in on “My One and Only Love.” Patti is a secret weapon. She can sing torch like a cross between Peggy Lee and Julie London (I’m not kidding). Eydie Gorme hears Patti, stops the music and says, “Frank, come over here. We’ve got a singer!” Frank moves to the piano and I then get to watch my wife beautifully serenade Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan, to be met by a torrent of applause when she’s finished. The next day we play Frank’s eightieth birthday celebration for ABC TV and I get to escort him to the stage along with Tony Bennett. It’s a beautiful evening and a fitting celebration for the greatest pop singer of all time. Two years later Frank passed away and we were generously invited to his funeral. A

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.

Quincy Jones says of creativity: ‘God walks out of the room when you’re thinking about money,

In the 1960s he had scratched his jazz itch on 1965’s A Shot in the Dark, which sat alongside contemporary scores by Herbie Hancock (Blow Up), Neal Hefti (Barefoot in the Park), Quincy Jones (The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood) and Lalo Schifrin (Bullitt).

Hagas lo que hagas, sé que el resultado será pre-cio-so. El pentagrama es tuyo y puedes hacer lo que quieras con él. ¡Todo mi amor y mi apoyo!

There's 12 notes that have been floating around the universe for 720 years now, and we have those same 12 notes that Brahms, Bach, and Beethoven had.

My hope and prayer is that our individual, creative voices may service to share a glimpse of connectivity with those who need it most.

My hope and prayer is that our individual, creative voices may serve to share a glimpse of connectivity with those who need it most

We need you, your gifts, and your talents.

I don't believe that you ever reach the top, and well, if you do, you might not be dreaming big enough.

I learned very early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, he wants to listen twice as much as we talk.

As my daddy repeatedly taught me, if you commit to something, you gotta go all the way with it. If you take a good look around, you’ll find that a lot of people ideate but not many of them execute. It’s a long road from ideation to execution. You have to be emotionally ready to put the required energy into whatever it is you are striving for because, if you don’t, you’ll hop into a vehicle with no gas. For many of us out there, we can’t afford to miss that first shot. Always be prepared for a great opportunity.

How can you expect to create art that transcends cultural boundaries if you yourself aren't able to relate to someone on the other side of your city?

I didn't have a mother in a traditional sense, so I made music my mother.

There's a saying that trauma is frozen at the peak, and if you stay trapped at the top, you'll die. Sometimes mentally, sometimes physically, and sometimes both. And if you close yourself off to the message that you're meant to share, you may never have to face your personal fears and trauma, but nothing good will ever come from it.

The late music mogul Quincy Jones has a daughter called Jolie Jones. She is one of the most famous people to have developed the emerging medical condition of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS).

Much to our collective disadvantage, the rules of society have led many to believe that creativity is only valuable for the artists who make a name for themselves. I call bs because we ALL have creative potential and we all deserve to realize it; it's only a matter of whether or not we allow ourselves to fulfill it.

Being on the other side of the glass is a very funny position-- you're the traffic director of another person's soul.

You've got to know where you came from in order to get where you want to go. Without that foundation, you won't know who you are, and you sure can't expect to create truthfully without knowing the truth. Additionally, the handprints of cross-culturalization can be found all over modern art if you take a deeper look.

When Ray Charles passed away, Quincy Jones memorialized him on 60 Minutes, saying, “He had this incredible gift of taking his own private darkness and turning it into a joyful shining light for everyone to share.

He's the father and godfather of music production, something he does with daedal disposition. All Quincy Jones does, I guess, is sidle up to the studios, sit down as mornings yawn their own welcome, work on the machines, splice voice with vision, and great songs are born.

Quincy was producing Michael Jackson at the time and said he liked Propaganda so much, he wanted them on his label in the US. So I know that Quincy Jones was listening to Propaganda, and I’m positive you can hear its influence on ‘Bad’.

On Oscar night, ushers carried trays of rainbow ribbons—another concession to Jackson—so that Black attendees could show their solidarity. Only Quincy Jones wore one. (Will Smith said it would clash with his tuxedo.)

«La ira es un ácido que puede dañar más el recipiente que lo contiene que cualquier otra cosa sobre la que se vierta».

Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being.

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.

Imagine what a harmonious world could be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at.” ― Quincy Jones ―

the only way I have even made it to this age is because I chose to learn and grow from my limitations.

You may be angry. These are difficult times and you may have a good reason for feeling that way. But imagine a world where instead of holding on to our anger, we use it to channel a more communal sense of love to make up for the lack thereof. What a world it would be.

when I started scoring films, the toughest parts of the creative process were spent trying to scrape away all of the unnecessary thoughts running around in my head—from internal feelings of unworthiness to external voices that verbally told me I wasn’t good enough. I had to keep chipping away at all of those thoughts until there was absolutely nothing left but the truth—that is, my soul and the message it wanted to communicate. Having tried it myself, I don’t think you can write or create anything worthwhile if you suppress your instincts and emotions. You’ve got to be sitting deep in truth in order to create truth.