Just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean you don't have to keep time. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share Image
I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public… — Thelonious Monk Copy Share Image
At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no… — Thelonious Monk Copy Share Image
I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share Image
Everyone is influenced by everybody but you bring it down home the way you feel it. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share
A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share
When I was a kid, some of the guys would try to get me to hate white people for what they've been doing to… — Thelonious Monk Copy Share
Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by... What you don't play can be more important than what you do. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share
I have to listen to New York; I live there. I wasn't born there, but I've been living there all my life. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share
I was playing birthday parties. House-rent parties where they used to sell whisky during prohibition. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share
I guess, you know, if I didn't make it with the piano, I guess I would've been the biggest bum. — Thelonious Monk Copy Share
