And on one particularly weighty draft he turned in, I told him to go h — Miles Davis

"Ive changed music four or five times. What have you done of any importance other than be white?"

"I’ll play it and tell you what it is later."

"The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and theyre full of chords. I cant 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."

"You cant play anything on a horn that Louis hasnt played." and "I love Pops" (Louis nickname) … Louis has been through all kinds of styles. Thats good tuba, by the way. You know you cant play anything on a horn that Louis hasnt played — I mean even modern. I love his approach to the trumpet; he never sounds bad. He plays on the beat — with feeling. Thats another phrase for swing. I also love the way he sings."

"When they make records with all the mistakes in, as well as the rest, then theyll really make jazz records. If the mistakes arent there too, it aint none of you."

"Is that what you wanted, Alfred?"

"The absolute requisites for the study of this work... are a knowledge of algebra to the binomial at least, plane and solid geometry, plane trigonometry, and the most simple part of the usual applications of algebra to geometry. ...A. De Morgan. London July 1, 1836"

"Captain Littlepage had overset his mind with too much reading."

"What say you? It is useless? Ay, I know But who fights ever hoping for success? I fought for lost cause, and for fruitless quest! You there, who are you! — You are thousands! Ah! I know you now, old enemies of mine! Falsehood! Have at you! Ha! and Compromise! Prejudice, Treachery! … Surrender, I? Parley? No, never! You too, Folly, — you? I know that you will lay me low at last; Let be! Yet I fall fighting, fighting still!"

"Ive been taking a closer look at these graduates. They are actually taller, stronger, smarter than we were, smart enough maybe to take our mistakes as their messages, to make our weaknesses their lessons, and to make our example — good and not so good — part of their education."

"In short, it is not merely that Johnny cant read, or even that Johnny cant think. Johnny doesnt know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling in many public schools. [emphasis in the original]"

"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both."