Bobby McFerrin Quotes

39 quotes in 542 categories

• The audience is like my instrument. It's not just me up there, it's collaborative.
• Well, I started conducting kind of by accident. I wanted to give myself a special birthday present for my fortieth birthday, and I was living…
• Part of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really…
• I don't want anything to get in the way of me and my singing. I want my mind as clear as possible.
• When you worry your face will frown, that will bring everybody down, so don't worry BE HAPPY!:)
• I'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior…
• My biggest musical influences are probably my parents.
• Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and…
• I like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I'm still and quiet inside, I'll begin. It's very personal;…
• Sometimes mistakes are the best thing that can happen, because they might lift you...out of your complacency, and open your mind up to a whole…
• Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever…
• Miles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn't there to entertain; he…
• If I can bring joy into the world, then I'll be successful.
• I couldn't do anything without faith. I couldn't open up my eyes, I couldn't walk, I couldn't speak, I couldn't sing.
• The voice gets to the soul of a person more than any other instrument. Because it's the voice. It sings talks, it cries, it laughs,…
• It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off…
• I bury my mind in my book, the Bible. Every morning it's the first thing that I do. I've been doing it for years and…
• I prepared five songs, I sang them, and he hired me. I started working about a month later at the piano bar.
• Music is so powerful, it needs to be used for some kind of redeeming work. To lift peoples spirits, to lift their souls.
• But, if there's any aspect of my career that needs attention, it's writing.

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