A biography for Quincy Joneshasn’t been written yet.
“I never cared about money or fame, and I don't care now. I follow the groove, and money always follows.”
“When I was 13, I started working in a nightclub with Ray Charles. That's the greatest school in the world, the school of the streets. Ray taught me how to read in Braille. He was only two years older than me, but it was like he was 100 years older.”
“If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture.”
“The only justification for looking down on anyone, is that you're going to stop and pick them up.”
“I believe that a hundred years from now, when people look back at the 20th century, they will look at Miles, Bird, Clifford Brown, Ella and Dizzy, among elders as our Mozarts, our Chopins, our Bachs and Beethovens.”
“When I was 14, I was a passenger in a terrible accident.”
“I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe.”
“I'd been in love before - I was always in love.”
“To me it's no accident that all the symphony orchestras around the world tune up to the note A. And A is 440 cycles, except in Germany where it's 444. But the universe is 450 cycles. So what I'm trying to say is, I think it's God's voice, melody especially. Counterpoint, retrograde inversion, harmony... that's the science and the craft.”
“China's got a billion people and a hit record over there is a million records. You know that ain't right.”
“I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.”
“I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.”
“Bebop and hip-hop, in so many ways, they're connected. A lot of rappers remind me so much of bebop guys in terms of improvisation, beats and rhymes. My dream is to see hip-hop incorporated in education. You've got the youth of the world in the palm of your hand.”
“I met Ray Charles at 14, and he was 16. But he was like a hundred years older than me.”
“We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again.”
“Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores.”
“When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it.”
“Cherish your mistakes, and you won't keep making them over and over again. It's the same with heartbreaks and girls and everything else. Cherish them, and they'll put some wealth in you.”
“I don't ever want to grow up. That's boring.”
“Unfortunately, America doesn't have a minister of culture, and I don't understand why. It's really bad for young people.”