Quotes from Charlie Parker

I became bitter, hard, cold. I was always on a panic - couldn't buy clothes or a good place to live.

Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Don't be afraid, just play the music.

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.

I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.

If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Man, there's no boundary line to art!

When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.

I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.

Music is basically melody, harmony, and rhythm. But people can do much more with music than that. It can be very descriptive in all kinds of ways, all walks of life.

If you come on a band tense, you're going to play tense. If you come a little bit foolish, act just a little bit foolish, and let yourself go, better ideas will come.

Definitely, study is absolutely necessary in all forms - it's just like any talent that's born within somebody. It's just like a good pair of shoes when you put a shine on it, you know? Like, schooling brings out the polish of any talent. It happens anywhere in the world.

I put quite a bit of study into the horn, that's true. In fact, the neighbors threatened to ask my mother to move once, you know.

Bop is no love-child of jazz.

Ever since I've ever heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise - as clean as possible, anyway, and more or less tuned to people. Something they could understand, something that was beautiful, you know?

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.