A bad song, the three best singers in the world cannot save it, and that's the bottom line. — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
I'm a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from. — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture. — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
Hell, nobody knows where jazz is going to go. There may be a kid right now in Chitlin Switch, Georgia, who is… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
Melody is king, and don't you ever forget it. Lyrics appear to be out front, but they're not; they're just an accompanying… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together... Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God. — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
I used to practice piano for hours, and now, with a synthesizer, you can input the music and the machine perfects the… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
Thank God, 50 years ago I learned that our entire business is all based on two things; a great song and a… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
To me it's no accident that all the symphony orchestras around the world tune up to the note A. And A is… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
I didn't understand key signatures or anything, you know. I'd say silly things at the top of a trumpet part like, 'Note,… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
Without the Fender bass, there'd be no rock n' roll or no Motown. The electric guitar had been waiting 'round since 1939… — Quincy Jones Copy Share Image
It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do. — Quincy Jones Copy Share
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… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
It slaps your dignity just right. I loved the idea of these proud, dignified black men, and I saw the older ones wounded, and… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
I was inspired by a lot of people when I was young. Every band that came through town, to the theater, or the dance… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
“The tragedy of Tupac is that his untimely passing is representative of too many young black men in this country…If we had lost Oprah… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
Thank God, 50 years ago I learned that our entire business is all based on two things; a great song and a great story.… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores. — Quincy Jones Copy Share
A person's age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea. — Quincy Jones Copy Share
I met Ray Charles at 14, and he was 16. But he was like a hundred years older than me. — Quincy Jones Copy Share
I got to trumpet, finally. That's why I love to write for brass, and [Count] Basie and [Frank] Sinatra and all that stuff, 'cause… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it. — Quincy Jones Copy Share
I look back and say, "This must have been somebody else." I am not going to tell you that when I was 4, I… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to… — Quincy Jones Copy Share
