Miles Davis Quotes

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

I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.

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

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

El conocimiento, el saber, es libertad, mientras que la ignorancia es esclavitud, y yo, simplemente, no podía creer que alguien estuviera tan cerca de la libertad y no se aprovechase de su buena suerte.

What am I supposed to say to that? That's ridiculous. You see the way they can __ up music? It's a mismatch. They don't complement each other. Max and Mingus can play together, by themselves. Mingus is a hell of a bass player, and Max is a hell of a drummer. But Duke can't play with them, and they can't play with Duke. Now, how are you going to give a thing like that some stars? Record companies should be kicked in the _. Somebody should take a picket sign and picket the record company.

He could very well be the Duke Ellington of Rock 'n' Roll.

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.

I remember one time - it might have been a couple times - at the Fillmore East in 1970, I was opening for this sorry-ass cat named Steve Miller. Steve Miller didn't have his shit going for him, so I'm pissed because I got to open for this non-playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry-ass records out. So I would come late and he would have to go on first and then we got there we smoked the motherfucking place, everybody dug it.

You can tell whether a person plays or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not. Then the way they talk and act. If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.

WE WERE ALL UP IN THAT SHIT LIKE A MUTHAFUCKA. IT'S CLEANER THAN A BROKE DICK DOG.

Coleman Hawkins told me never to play with someone older than me, and I never have. With older players, there's no force, no drive. With younger players, it's not that you know it all, or I know it all—it's I'm trying to learn it all.

"You can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played." and "I love Pops" (Louis' nickname) … Louis has been through all kinds of styles. That's good tuba, by the way. You know you can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played — I mean even modern. I love his approach to the trumpet; he never sounds bad. He plays on the beat — with feeling. That's another phrase for swing. I also love the way he sings.

A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it.

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