Quotes By Quincy Jones

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.

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

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

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.'

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.

I don't remember feeling love.

The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.

When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out.

I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it.

When I was 14, I was a passenger in a terrible accident.

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.

I'm not a psychiatrist.

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