Paul Desmond

I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.

— Paul Desmond

The qualities in music which I considered most important - and still do - were beauty, simplicity, originality, discrimination, and sincerity.

— Paul Desmond

I'm glad [Ornette Coleman] is such an individualist. I like the firmness of thought and purpose that goes into what he's doing,…

— Paul Desmond

We used to get on planes, and they'd ask who we were, and we'd say, 'The Dave Brubeck Quartet', and they'd say,…

— Paul Desmond

I would like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age.

— Paul Desmond

I would also like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age.

— Paul Desmond

We're working as if it were going out of style-which of course it is.

— Paul Desmond

Sometimes I get the feeling that there are orgies going on all over new York City, and somebody says, `Let's call Desmond,'…

— Paul Desmond

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

— Paul Desmond

Our basic audience begins with creaking elderly types of twenty-three and above.

— Paul Desmond

Not for me. If I want to tune everybody out, I just take off my glasses and enjoy the haze.

— Paul Desmond

I discovered early in life that if you take gym first period, you can go into the wrestling room and sit in…

— Paul Desmond

I was overlooked long before anyone knew who I was.

— Paul Desmond

It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo,

— Paul Desmond

Milton, of all people, gave the most perfect definition of the state of mind required to play jazz: ' with wanton heed…

— Paul Desmond

I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.

— Paul Desmond

Complexity can be a trap. You can have a ball developing a phrase, inverting it, playing it in different keys and times…

— Paul Desmond

Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can't be taught.

— Paul Desmond