Miles Davis Quotes

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

When I got into music I went all the way into music; I didn't have no time after that for nothing else.

See, music is about style.

Being rebellious and black, a nonconformist, being cool and hip and angry and sophisticated and ultra clean, whatever else you want to call it — I was all those things and more. But I was playing the fuck out of my horn and had a great group, so I didn't get recognition based only on a rebel image.

Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it.

Bad music is what will ruin music, not the instruments musicians choose to play.

The very first thing I remember in my early childhood is a flame, a blue flame jumping off a gas stove somebody lit... I remember being shocked by the whoosh of the blue flame jumping off the burner, the suddenness of it... I saw that flame and felt that hotness of it close to my face. I felt fear, real fear, for the first time in my life. But I remember it also like some kind of adventure, some kind of weird joy, too. I guess that experience took me someplace in my head I hadn't been before... The fear I had was almost like an invitation, a challenge to go forward into something I knew nothing about. That's where I think my personal philosophy of life and my commitment to everything I believe in started... In my mind I have always believed and thought since then that my motion had to be forward, away from the heat of that flame.

Naw, I wasn't going to sell my principles for them. I wanted to be accepted as a good musician and that didn't call for no grinning, but just being able to play the horn good. And that's what I did then and now. Critics can take that or leave it.

I hate how white people always try to take credit for something after they discover it. Like it wasn't happening before they found out about it — which most times is always late, and they didn't have nothing to do with it happening. Then, they try to take all the credit, try to cut everybody black out.

I'm a fiend when it comes to good pastry, and the French make the best as far as I'm concerned.

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

The metric system ruined me.

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

It's that goddamned motherfucking 'Machine Gun.'

Try taking the fucking horn out of your mouth.