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I Was Inspired By A Lot Of People When I Was Young, Every Band That Came Through Town, To The Theater, Or The Dance Hall. I Was At Every Dance, Every Night Club, Listened To Every Band That Came Through, Because In Those Days We Didn't Have Mtv, We Didn't Have Television.

-Quincy Jones

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I Was Inspired By

Quincy Jones

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I Was Inspired By A Lot Of People When I Was Young, Every Band That Came Through Town, To The Theater, Or The Dance Hall. I Was At Every Dance, Every Night Club, Listened To Every Band That Came Through, Because In Those Days We Didn't Have Mtv, We Didn't Have Television.

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I Don't Deserve A Songwriters Hall Of Fame Award. But Fifteen Years Ago, I Had A Brain Operation And I Didn't Deserve That, Either. So I'll Keep It.

My Daddy Was A Carpenter That Worked With The Jones Boys, Who Are The Most Notorious In America. The Black Gangsters, You Know, They Were No Joke. And He Was Their Master Carpenter. He Used To Build Their Homes, And All I Saw When I Was 11 Years Old Were Dead Bodies And Tommy Guns And Stogies, And Backrooms, You Know, Drexel Wine And Liquor, With The Big Piles Of Money Underneath.

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A Song Should Have All The Color And Beauty Of Every Rose.

You Want Your Parents To Say, "hey, I'm Proud Of You." When You Don't Hear That, You Learn To Compensate. You Say, "hell, I Don't Need Their Approval. If I Get My Music Right, I'll Have Everyone Else's Approval." I Didn't Understand It Then, But I Now Know That's What Happened To Me.

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It's Amazing How Much Trouble You Can Get In When You Don't Have Anything Else To Do.

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I've Met Every Freak In The Business.

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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.

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We Were In The Heart Of The Ghetto In Chicago During The Depression, And Every Block - It Was Probably The Biggest Black Ghetto In America - Every Block Also Is The Spawning Ground Practically For Every Gangster, Black And White, In America Too.

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I Never Felt Like That In My Life. I Didn't Know Human Beings Played These Instruments. I Heard Them In Chicago And Louisville And St. Louis All My Life, You Know? But I Didn't Know Human Beings Played Them, You Know? So The Next Day I Went To Coontz Junior High School And I Started On Sousaphone, Tuba, B-flat Baritone, E-flat Alto, French Horn, Trombone.

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It Was Messed Up, Because In 1947 My Family Moved To Seattle And I Had To Get Up At 5:00 O'clock In The Morning To Catch The Ferry Back To Bremerton Every Morning Because I Was Boys Club President.

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.

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The Only Music I Don't Like Is Bad Music.

China's Got A Billion People And A Hit Record Over There Is A Million Records. You Know That Ain't Right.

Greatness Occurs When Your Children Love You, When Your Critics Respect You And When You Have Peace Of Mind.

I Used To Practice Piano For Hours, And Now, With A Synthesizer, You Can Input The Music And The Machine Perfects The Song. That's Why We Have So Many People In The Music Business Who Should Be Plumbers. They Don't Really Understand Music Because They Haven't Been Trained.

I'm Never In My Life Going To Do A Record That's A Tribute To Myself. I Don't Need It.

I Started Imagining This Whole Different World. It Was A Society Of Musicians, A Family I Hoped I Could Belong To One Day.

I Was Inspired By A Lot Of People When I Was Young, Every Band That Came Through Town, To The Theater, Or The Dance Hall. I Was At Every Dance, Every Night Club, Listened To Every Band That Came Through, Because In Those Days We Didn't Have Mtv, We Didn't Have Television.

I'm Just A Musician And A Record Producer.

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