Miles Davis Quotes

Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.

It's not the note you play that's the wrong note - it's the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.

A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.

In music, silence is more important than sound.

It takes a long time to sound like yourself.

It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.

First you imitate, then you innovate.

If somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I'd spend it choking a white man. I'd do it nice and slow.

Always listen for what you can leave out.

Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery

Music is the framework around the silence.

If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that determines if it's good or bad.

It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.

Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

See, if you put a musician in a place where he has to do something different from what he does all the time, then he can do that - but he's got to think differently in order to do it. He's got to play above what he knows - far above it. I've always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that's where great art and music happens.

If you understood everything I say, you'd be me!

My future starts when I wake up every morning.

You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.

If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can't be trusted.

If you're not nervous then you're not paying attention.

Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.

People will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype.