Adversity Quote by Charles Mingus

Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?

— Charles Mingus

Whatever coast he's on, a man should be himself. I don't write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus.

— Charles Mingus

If someone has been escaping reality, I don't expect him to dig my music.

— Charles Mingus

Everything I do is Mingus.

— Charles Mingus

I never heard my music played the way I heard it in my head.

— Charles Mingus

That sound in tune to you? Sounds sharp to me. Sounds like I'm playing sharp all the time. My singing teacher told us you…

— Charles Mingus

Our nights didn't begin until after noon. Because in the old days, you'd start Birdland at 8:30 or 9 pm and play until 4…

— Charles Mingus

My son's a painter. All through school his teachers tell him he's a genius. I tell him to paint me an apple that looks…

— Charles Mingus

“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.”

— Charles Mingus

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

— Charles Mingus

I always thought that no matter what kind of work people did, they should involve themselves totally with all the discrimination they ran into.

— Charles Mingus

I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I've grown up and I like to do things…

— Charles Mingus