Improvisation Quotes

169 quotes by 148 authors

There are editing procedures for talks just as there are editing procedures in jazz improvisation. — David Antin
Most of us lead lives of chaotic improvisation from day to day, bawling for peace while plunging grimly into fresh disorders. — Edward Abbey
The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations. — Jane Jacobs
Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation. — W. Somerset Maugham
These are days when no one should rely unduly on his competence. Strength lies in improvisation. All the decisive blows are struck left-handed. — Walter Benjamin
Volleyball is one of the most interactive games going. It is a game of intuition, imagination, improvisation - but most of all, of reciprocity -… — Marv Dunphy
I hope it might help players have confidence in our own ways, and not to be afraid of them, as Bernstein showed - things like… — Wynton Marsalis
Free improvisation, in addition to being a highly skilled musical craft, is open to use by almost anyone-beginners, children, and non-musicians. The skill and intellect… — Derek Bailey
Undeniably, the audience for improvisation, good or bad, active or passive, sympathetic or hostile, has a power that no other audience has. It can affect… — Derek Bailey
In 1968 I ran into Steve Lacy on the street in Rome. I took out my pocket tape recorder and asked him to describe in… — Frederic Rzewski
Hendrix was back there with a few of the others who were like my training wheels ... hearing him as a teenager taught me to… — Junior Brown
Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable. Time and place do not exist; on a significant bases of reality, the imagination spins, weaving new… — August Strindberg
Cynics who say power is all that counts in politics forget that power without ideas is just improvisation. — Michael Ignatieff
I learned at a very young age that music teaches you about life. When you're in the midst of improvisation, there is no yesterday and… — Charlie Haden
Composing is improvisation slowed down. — Wayne Shorter
Free improvisation, in addition to being a highly skilled musical craft, is open to use by almost anyone--beginners, children, and non-musiciansâ€¦ — Derek Bailey
Certain kinds of speed, flow, intensity, density of attacks, density of interaction... Music that concentrates on those qualities is, I think, easier achieved by free… — Evan Parker
In a certain sense, aspects of my solo playing were developed in order to test the theory about how long particular elements could be, as… — Evan Parker
Thorny compositions that sound as if female teen punkers the Shaggs received doctorates in the music of 12-tone composer Alban Berg, and then rewrote their… — Elliott Sharp
With the exceptional talent that is Guy Sigsworth as producer and collaborator, we have recorded a collection of original songs that sees me moving away… — Alison Moyet

Who Wrote These Improvisation Quotes

148 authors contributed a total of 169 Improvisation Quotes, led by these top contributors: