Quotes By Quincy Jones

We got into all the trouble you could ever imagine. We figured that if the Jones boys and all the gangsters ran Chicago, we had our own territory now. All the stores, all the crime, we were in charge of everything, my stepbrother and my brother.

Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.

It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play.

I'm just a musician and a record producer.

If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture.

We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too.

Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important.

My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door.

I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.

You make your mistakes to learn how to get to the good stuff.

If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle.

Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they're 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know?

You cannot get an A if you're afraid of getting an F.

I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe.

It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do.

I found this out over the years, that racism is a thinly veiled disguise over economics and money. It really is.

I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.

China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.

I've met every freak in the business.

We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again.

I never felt like I had a mother.

I'm a tremendous believer and supporter in hip-hop and rap.

I was the most subtle person in the world.

My father was a carpenter, a very good carpenter. He also worked for the Jones boys. They were not family members, we weren't related at all. They started the policy racket in Chicago, and they had the five and dime store.

My earliest memories are being pinned to a fence with a switchblade.

I was inspired by a lot of people when I was young. Every band that came through town, to the theater, or the dance hall. I was at every dance, every night club, listened to every band that came through, because in those days we didn't have MTV, we didn't have television.

All guys get into music because they love music and they also want to get the girls.

I'm a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.

Playing the game, and unfortunately, playing the gangster game is very profitable.

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.'