Individual Quote by Gary Giddins

Even my colleagues don't read classic criticism. And my feeling is that if you don't do that then you're not really practicing your craft.…

— Gary Giddins

I'm a critic. That means you are a writer. So, yes, you have to make yourself an authority on whatever subject it's going to…

— Gary Giddins

You're writing for some version of yourself. You're writing the kinds of things that you like to read or wanted to read at a…

— Gary Giddins

One of the things I always underscore when I teach criticism is that young critics, or would be critics, frequently have this illusion that…

— Gary Giddins

Writing style is something is a consequence of who you are. I think that I had a certain propensity for a style that I…

— Gary Giddins

I think all of us begin as writers. I wanted to be a writer from the time I as eight, long before I heard…

— Gary Giddins

Humility is a very important trait in a critic.

— Gary Giddins

People should not feel intimidated by received wisdom. You have to discover it yourself. If I tell you that Armstrong is great, it's meaningless;…

— Gary Giddins

I hate the idea of turning jazz into homework assignments. I would never have a quiz saying, "Who's the clarinetist on the Hot Five?"…

— Gary Giddins

Jazz is for joy. It's for euphoria, it's for emotion, and anguish, and excitement, and all of the joys that great art can produce,…

— Gary Giddins

Bing Crosby said that Armstrong is "the beginning and the end of music in America," and he wasn't far wrong.

— Gary Giddins

Nobody knows where jazz is going, because nobody has ever known where jazz was going. I mean, you couldn't possibly predict the Swing Era…

— Gary Giddins