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Quincy Jones Quotes

Quincy Jones Quotes

Enjoy the top 133 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Quincy Jones.

“Its 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.”
— Quincy Jones —

I'm probably the only one in the world you can name that's worked with Billie Holiday, Louie Armstrong, Ella, Duke, Miles, Dizzy, Ray Charles, Aretha, Michael Jackson, rappers. 'Fly Me to the Moon' was played on the moon by Buzz Aldrin. Sinatra. Paul Simon. Tony Bennett. I'm the only one.

— Quincy Jones

“Seattle is like a global gumbo, a melting pot with all kinds of people - the rich, the poor, white people, some Chinese, Filipino, Jewish and black people - they're all here.”

— Quincy Jones

“Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring.”

— Quincy Jones

“I have all the tools and gadgets. I tell my son, who's a producer, 'You never work for the machine; the machine works for you.'”

— Quincy Jones

“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.”

— Quincy Jones

“I'm Pisces with Leo rising. The Pisces part is the dreamer. The Leo says, 'Let's execute.'”

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

“When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it.”

— Quincy Jones

To me it's no accident that all the symphony orchestras around the world tune up to the note A. And A is 440 cycles, except in Germany where it's 444. But the universe is 450 cycles. So what I'm trying to say is, I think it's God's voice, melody especially. Counterpoint, retrograde inversion, harmony ... that's the science and the craft.

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

Bebop and hip-hop, in so many ways, they're connected. A lot of rappers remind me so much of bebop guys in terms of improvisation, beats and rhymes. My dream is to see hip-hop incorporated in education. You've got the youth of the world in the palm of your hand.

— Quincy Jones

“When you work with Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, and you tell them to jump without a net, you better know what you're talking about. Thank God I was ready for it.”

— Quincy Jones

“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.”

— Quincy Jones

Working with kids in Soweto in South Africa, it's rough out there. But the bottom line is you've got to go to know. In Cambodia, there are 10,000 landmines. Same in Afghanistan, same in Colombia. I'm totally addicted to traveling.

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

“I hope that on my tombstone it says 'Born 1933, died 2043.' I hope that's my legacy.”

— Quincy Jones

“I think the attraction of 'American Idol' is about the basic human nature attitude that is, 'We can put you up there. But we can take you down.'”

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

“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.”

— Quincy Jones

“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.”

— Quincy Jones

“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.”

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

“I live on the Internet.”

— Quincy Jones

I never felt like I had a mother.

— Quincy Jones

“I was rapping in 1939. It's old. The roots are complex. And kids don't know.”

— Quincy Jones

“I'd been in love before - I was always in love.”

— Quincy Jones

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

— Quincy Jones

“My son is a hip-hop producer.”

— Quincy Jones

“Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind.”

— Quincy Jones

“Not one ounce of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.”

— Quincy Jones

“I've been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism. I believed in my dreams because they were my only option. The people who make it to the top are addicted to their calling. You have to honor the gift God has given you. The people who get the call are the ones who'd be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren't being paid.”

— Quincy Jones

“Imagine what a harmonious world it ...”

— Quincy Jones

“Let's not get too full of ourselves. Let's leave space for God to come into the room.”

— Quincy Jones

“I learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk.”

— Quincy Jones

Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together ... Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances into freedom, friendship, hope, and dignity.

— Quincy Jones

“The process is the most beautiful part.”

— Quincy Jones

“Louis 'Thunder Thumbs' Johnson was one of the greatest bass players to ever pick up the instrument, as a member of the Brothers Johnson, we shared decades of magical times working together in the studio and touring the world. From my albums 'Body Heat' and 'Mellow Madness,' to their platinum albums 'Look Out for #1,' 'Right On Time,' 'Blam' and 'Light Up the Night,' which I produced, to Michael's solo debut 'Off the Wall,' I considered Louis a core member of my production team. He was a dear and beloved friend and brother, and I will miss his presence and joy of life every day.”

— Quincy Jones

I go to the favelas in Brazil. It's the same in the South Side of Chicago. It's the same, or just more violent. We're trying to get them to stop selling dope. You see kids with AK-47s, and nine-year-olds with nine millimeters. You know, they don't play. They make us look like nuns.

— Quincy Jones

“My brother died of cancer two years ago (1998), renal cell carcinoma. He was my only real brother and I didn't know what to do. I'd never been so desperate in my life.”

— Quincy Jones

A lot of the guys were like that - Oscar Pettiford - they just took me under their wing, and that's why I automatically help young people. I just love it, because they did that for me.

— Quincy Jones

“It was messed up, because in 1947 my family moved to Seattle and I had to get up at 5:00 o'clock in the morning to catch the ferry back to Bremerton every morning because I was Boys Club president.”

— Quincy Jones

“You have to know that your real home is within.”

— Quincy Jones

I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it.

— Quincy Jones

“If I don't have a mother, I'll let music be my mother.”

— Quincy Jones

“I never felt like that in my life. I didn't know human beings played these instruments. I heard them in Chicago and Louisville and St. Louis all my life, you know? But I didn't know human beings played them, you know? So the next day I went to Coontz Junior High School and I started on sousaphone, tuba, B-flat baritone, E-flat alto, French horn, trombone.”

— Quincy Jones

“My daddy was a carpenter that worked with the Jones boys, who are the most notorious in America. The black gangsters, you know, they were no joke. And he was their master carpenter. He used to build their homes, and all I saw when I was 11 years old were dead bodies and tommy guns and stogies, and backrooms, you know, Drexel Wine and Liquor, with the big piles of money underneath.”