Duke Ellington

New music? Hell, there's been no new music since Stravinsky.

— Duke Ellington

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.

— Duke Ellington

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

— Duke Ellington

Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.

— Duke Ellington

The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That's the pulse.The African pulse. It's all the way back from . .…

— Duke Ellington

Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.

— Duke Ellington

The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so…

— Duke Ellington

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what…

— Duke Ellington

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.

— Duke Ellington

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

— Duke Ellington

The artist must say it without saying it.

— Duke Ellington

Problems are chances for us to do our best.

— Duke Ellington

“New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillac's, and the beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of…

— Duke Ellington

Hurry, get on board, it's comin', listen to those rails a-thrumming all aboard. Get on the "A" train, soon you will be…

— Duke Ellington

Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the…

— Duke Ellington

Simplicity is a most complex form

— Duke Ellington

On becoming more acquainted with the word of the Bible, I began to understand so much more of what I had been…

— Duke Ellington

Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his…

— Duke Ellington

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

— Duke Ellington

If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with…

— Duke Ellington

Roaming through the jungle of "Ohs" and "Ahs" searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the…

— Duke Ellington

I like any and all of my associations with music -writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and…

— Duke Ellington

Billy Strayhorn is my right arm, my left arm, and the six eyes in the back of my head.

— Duke Ellington

“It doesn't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing”

— Duke Ellington

The Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern' art. What is more African than a Picasso?

— Duke Ellington