Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, a great trumpeter who as a bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music. Inspirational Miles Davis quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.
If you’re searching for inspirational quotes by musicians that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of profound Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart quotes, amazing Bruno Mars quotes and top George Strait quotes.
Famous Miles Davis Quotes
Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself. Miles Davis
If you understood everything I said, you’d be me. Miles Davis
A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it. Miles Davis
Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself. Miles Davis
It was Jimi Hendrix that I first got into when Betty Mabry turned me on to him. Miles Davis
Don’t play what’s there; play what’s not there. Miles Davis
Prince is from the school of James Brown, and I love James Brown because of all the great rhythms he plays. Miles Davis
Do not fear mistakes there are none. Miles Davis
You’d be surprised. Drummers ape each other. The way every rock n roll record sounds like something else but not all together. Everything other drummers play, if you’re playing drums, they all hear. Miles Davis
It’s like, how did Columbus discover America when the Indians were already here? What kind of shit is that, but white people’s shit? Miles Davis
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas. Miles Davis
My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life. Miles Davis
You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line. We’re just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best. Miles Davis
Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery. Miles Davis
Do not fear mistakes. There are none. Miles Davis
Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent. Miles Davis
I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later. Miles Davis
When you’re creating your own shit, man, even the sky ain’t the limit. Miles Davis
For me, music and life are all about style. Miles Davis
It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change. Miles Davis
It’s always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there and I don’t question it. Miles Davis
Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up. Miles Davis
Prince got some Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix and Sly in him, also, even Little Richard. He’s a mixture of all those guys and Duke Ellington. Miles Davis
Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is. Miles Davis
The music I was really listening to in 1968 was James Brown, the great guitar player Jimi Hendrix, and a new group. Sly and the Family Stone, led by Sly Stewart from San Francisco. Miles Davis
I remember one time it might have been a couple times at the Fillmore East in 1970, I was opening for this sorry ass cat named Steve Miller. Steve Miller didn’t have his shit going for him, so I’m pissed because I got to open for this non playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry ass records out. So I would come late and he would have to go on first and then we got there we smoked the motherfucking place, everybody dug it. Miles Davis
Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist. Miles Davis
If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can’t be trusted. Miles Davis
When you do anything too long, you either wear it out or lose interest. Miles Davis
It’s not the note you play that’s the wrong note it’s the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong. Miles Davis
Prince might be bringing that low sound back, because he has that double bass. Miles Davis
I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light. Miles Davis
Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there. Miles Davis
For me, music and life are all about style. Miles Davis
I have to change. It’s like a curse. Miles Davis
I always listen to what I can leave out. Miles Davis
I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis. Miles Davis
I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it. Miles Davis
Space music’d be really something but they don’t have no gravity up there. You couldn’t have no downbeat! Miles Davis
A lot of people ask me where music is going today. I think it’s going in short phrases. If you listen, anybody with an ear can hear that. Music is always changing. It changes because of the times and the technology that’s available, the material that things are made of, like plastic cars instead of steel. So when you hear an accident today it sounds different, not all the metal colliding like it was in the forties and fifties. Musicians pick up sounds and incorporate that into their playing, so the music that they make will be different. Miles Davis
When I’m playing, I’m never through. It’s unfinished. I like to find a place to leave for someone else to finish it. That’s where the high comes in. Miles Davis
If you don’t know what to play, play nothing. Miles Davis
He comes in on the beat and plays on top of the beat. I think when Prince makes love, he hears drums instead of Ravel. Miles Davis
I hate how white people always try to take credit for something after they discover it. Like it wasn’t happening before they found out about it which most times is always late, and they didn’t have nothing to do with it happening. Miles Davis
If you understood everything I say, you’d be me! Miles Davis
Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself. Miles Davis
Do not fear mistakes. There are none. Miles Davis
Philly Joe was a bitch. If he’d been a lawyer and white, he would have been president of the United States, because in order to get there you gotta talk fast and carry a lot of bullshit with you; Philly had it all and a lot to spare. Miles Davis
Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself. Miles Davis
But you’ve got to have style in whatever you do writing, music, painting, fashion, boxing, anything. Miles Davis
Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there. Miles Davis
Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing. Miles Davis
If you understood everything I say, you’d be me! Miles Davis
Sometimes you have to play a long time to play like yourself. Miles Davis
For me, music and life are all about style. Miles Davis
Don t play what’s there, play what’s not there. Miles Davis
I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life. Miles Davis
When I got into music I went all the way into music; I didn’t have no time after that for nothing else. Miles Davis
A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it. Miles Davis
Being rebellious and black, a nonconformist, being cool and hip and angry and sophisticated and ultra clean, whatever else you want to call it I was all those things and more. But I was playing the fuck out of my horn and had a great group, so I didn’t get recognition based only on a rebel image. Miles Davis
I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later. Miles Davis
Bad music is what will ruin music, not the instruments musicians choose to play. Miles Davis
It’s always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there and I don’t question it. Miles Davis
Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it. Miles Davis
If you’re not making a mistake, it’s a mistake. Miles Davis
I hate how white people always try to take credit for something after they discover it. Like it wasn’t happening before they found out about it which most times is always late, and they didn’t have nothing to do with it happening. Then, they try to take all the credit, try to cut everybody black out. Miles Davis
I never thought jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic. Miles Davis
The very first thing I remember in my early childhood is a flame, a blue flame jumping off a gas stove somebody lit. I remember being shocked by the whoosh of the blue flame jumping off the burner, the suddenness of it. I saw that flame and felt that hotness of it close to my face. I felt fear, real fear, for the first time in my life. But I remember it also like some kind of adventure, some kind of weird joy, too. I guess that experience took me someplace in my head I hadn’t been before. The fear I had was almost like an invitation, a challenge to go forward into something I knew nothing about. That’s where I think my personal philosophy of life and my commitment to everything I believe in started. In my mind I have always believed and thought since then that my motion had to be forward, away from the heat of that flame. Miles Davis
Play what you know, and then play above that. Miles Davis
Naw, I wasn’t going to sell my principles for them. I wanted to be accepted as a good musician and that didn’t call for no grinning, but just being able to play the horn good. And that’s what I did then and now. Critics can take that or leave it. Miles Davis
Music is an addiction. Miles Davis
I’m a fiend when it comes to good pastry, and the French make the best as far as I’m concerned. Miles Davis
In music, silence is more important than sound. Miles Davis
I know people get tired of hearing it but black people have got to keep saying it, throwing our conditions up into these people’s faces until something is done about the way they have treated us. We’ve just got to keep it in front of their eyes and their ears like the Jews have done. We’ve got to make them know and understand just how evil the things are that they did to us over all these years and are still doing to us today. Miles Davis
Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one. Miles Davis
You can tell whether a person plays or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not. Then the way they talk and act. If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit. Miles Davis
Audiences they like colour, you know. I can go out there wearing a red suit, man, and they’ll say I’m out of sight. I think they should be educated; you should always drop something on an audience when you get in front of an audience, you should try to give em something. After all, they’re there looking at you like this. You can’t go out and give em nothing. Miles Davis
A painting is music you can see, and music is a painting you can hear. Miles Davis
If you’re not nervous, then you’re not paying attention. Miles Davis
I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life. Miles Davis
How far would I travel to be where you are? How far is the journey from here to a star? Miles Davis
When you do anything too long, you either wear it out or lose interest. Miles Davis
Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin. Miles Davis
A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it. Miles Davis
Good music is good, no matter what kind of music it is. Miles Davis
