Quotes by Quincy Jones

About Quincy Jones:

Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. is an American record producer, conductor, arranger, composer, musician, television producer, film producer, instrumentalist, magazine founder, entertainment company executive, and humanitarian. His career spans six decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. Jones and fellow artist Alison Krauss have won the second most Grammys in history.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

When I was 14, I was a passenger in a terrible accident.

Quincy Jones

When I was 14, I would sit up in my room and write till my eyes would bleed.

Quincy Jones

The only justification for looking down on anyone, is that you're going to stop and pick them up.

Quincy Jones

If you started in New York you were dealing with the biggest guys in the world. You're dealing with Charlie Parker and all the big bands and everything. We got more experience working in Seattle.

Quincy Jones

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.

Quincy Jones

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.

Quincy Jones

My father was a carpenter, a very good carpenter. He also worked for the Jones boys. They were not family members, we weren't related at all. They started the policy racket in Chicago, and they had the five and dime store.

Quincy Jones

The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.

Quincy Jones

I've met every freak in the business.

Quincy Jones

Music was the one thing I could control. It was the one world that offered me freedom. When I played music, my nightmares ended. My family problems disappeared. I didn't have to search for answers. The answers lay no further than the bell of my trump...

Quincy Jones

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.

Quincy Jones

I hope that on my tombstone it says 'Born 1933, died 2043.' I hope that's my legacy.

Quincy Jones

I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music - gospel, blues, jazz and R&B - is the heart and soul of all popular music; and that we cannot afford to let this legacy slip int...

Quincy Jones

After every war, there was a significant change in the music, and I can understand how that happened. If you participate in protecting the country, you think you can be part of it, but you come back home and it's worse than ever.

Quincy Jones

I was raised in Chicago and I guess that was one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters of all colors. That was the Detroit of the gangster world. The car industry was thugs.

Quincy Jones

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 o...

Quincy Jones

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 espe...

Quincy Jones

When you work with Ray Charles, Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, and you tell them to jump without a net, you better know what you're talking about. Thank God I was ready for it.

Quincy Jones

Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.'

Quincy Jones

I'm a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.

Quincy Jones

Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing.

Quincy Jones

Author Bio

  • NameQuincy Jones
  • DescriptionAmerican record producer, conductor, arranger, composer, television producer, and trumpeter
  • AliasesQuincy Delight Jones, Jr.
  • BornMarch 14, 1933
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionConductor; Trumpeter; Composer; Bandleader; Jazz Musician
  • AwardsCommander Of The Legion Of Honour; Marian Anderson Award; Grammy Trustees Award; Grammy Legend Award; MusiCares Person Of The Year; National Humanities Medal; Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award; Steiger Award