Skip to content
quotesby

20 Miles Davis Quotes

Miles Davis shares cool, creative musings on music and art that inspire a fresh take on jazz.

Miles Davis quotes

  1. 'For me, music and life are all about style.'

    #1

  2. 'I've changed music four or five times. What have you done of any importance other than be white?'

    #2

  3. The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.

    #3

  4. '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.'

    #4

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

    #5

  6. 'Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin'

    #6

  7. 'Who's that motherfucker? He can't play shit!'

    #7

  8. 'You a motherfucker.'

    #8

  9. 'He plays like somebody is standing on his foot.'

    #9

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

    #10

  11. 'Why'd you put that white bitch on there?'

    #11

  12. 'You can't play anything on a horn that Louis hasn't played.'

    #12

  13. 'I'll play it and tell you what it is later.'

    #13

  14. 'Listen baby, when I say later, I mean it! Later!'

    #14

  15. 'There are no wrong notes.'

    #15

  16. 'My ego only needs a good rhythm section.' On being asked what he looked for in musicians.

    #16

  17. 'When you are creating your own shit, man, even the sky ain't the limit.'

    #17

  18. 'Try taking the fucking horn out of your mouth.'

    #18

  19. 'It's that goddamned motherfucking 'Machine Gun.''

    #19

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

    #20