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It Might Be Something As Simple As Saying The Right Word To The Right Person At The Right Time-and That Could Change The Course Of History. You Never Really Know. But The Whole Thing Is To Work At The Process Of Being In Sync With The Universe, So That Everything Will Align At The Proper Time So That You Can Deliver That Which Is Your Life Mission. And That's Why We're Here As Individuals. And Then There's Our Contribution To The Collective. It Makes A Lot Of Sense, Doesn't It?

-Herbie Hancock

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It Might Be Something

Herbie Hancock

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It Might Be Something As Simple As Saying The Right Word To The Right Person At The Right Time-and That Could Change The Course Of History. You Never Really Know. But The Whole Thing Is To Work At The Process Of Being In Sync With The Universe, So That Everything Will Align At The Proper Time So That You Can Deliver That Which Is Your Life Mission. And That's Why We're Here As Individuals. And Then There's Our Contribution To The Collective. It Makes A Lot Of Sense, Doesn't It?

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There's So Much Spontaneity Involved, What Do You Practice? How Do You Practice Teamwork? How Do You Practice Sharing? How Do You Practice Daring? How Do You Practice Being Nonjudgmental?

It Might Be Something As Simple As Saying The Right Word To The Right Person At The Right Time-and That Could Change The Course Of History. You Never Really Know. But The Whole Thing Is To Work At The Process Of Being In Sync With The Universe, So That Everything Will Align At The Proper Time So That You Can Deliver That Which Is Your Life Mission. And That's Why We're Here As Individuals. And Then There's Our Contribution To The Collective. It Makes A Lot Of Sense, Doesn't It?

I Think There's A Great Beauty To Having Problems. That's One Of The Ways We Learn.

There Are A Lot Of Records Coming Out, In Every Field Of Music, Not Just Jazz.

The Cool Thing Is That Jazz Is Really A Wonderful Example Of The Great Characteristics Of Buddhism And Great Characteristics Of The Human Spirit. Because In Jazz We Share, We Listen To Each Other, We Respect Each Other, We Are Creating In The Moment. At Our Best, We're Non-judgmental.

One Thing That Sticks In My Mind Is That Jazz Means Freedom And Openness. It's A Music That, Although It Developed Out Of The African American Experience, Speaks More About The Human Experience Than The Experience Of A Particular People.

African American

World Peace Is No Longer Some Pie-in-the-sky Thing, Because No Single Person Or Country Is Going To Solve It On Their Own.

Globalization Means We Have To Re-examine Some Of Our Ideas, And Look At Ideas From Other Countries, From Other Cultures, And Open Ourselves To Them. And That's Not Comfortable For The Average Person.

It's Not Exclusive, But Inclusive, Which Is The Whole Spirit Of Jazz.

Forget About Trying To Compete With Someone Else. Create Your Own Pathway. Create Your Own New Vision.

I Like To Be On The Edge, On The Cutting Edge, Or Be Into The Unknown, Into The Territory Where I Have To Depend On Being In The Moment And Depending On My Instincts.

I Spent Five Years, At Least, Working With Miles. Together, We Recorded Esp, Nefertiti, Sorcerer -- And I Can Tell You; Each Of These Albums Instantly Became Jazz Classics. Hey, We Had Wayne Shorter Playing Tenor Sax, Ron [carter] On Bass, Tony Williams Played Drums. That Was Great Band We Had.

In The World Of Art There Are No Wrong Choices.

It's Not The Style That Motivates Me, As Much As An Attitude Of Openness That I Have When I Go Into A Project.

At A Certain Point, I Became A Kind Of Musician That Has Tunnel Vision About Jazz. I Only Listened To Jazz And Classical Music.

The Strongest Thing That Any Human Being Has Going Is Their Own Integrity And Their Own Heart. As Soon As You Start Veering Away From That, The Solidity That You Need In Order To Be Able To Stand Up For What You Believe In And Deliver What's Really Inside, It's Just Not Going To Be There.

I Got A Chance To Work With Miles Davis, And That Changed Everything For Me, 'cause Miles Really Encouraged All His Musicians To Reach Beyond What They Know, Go Into Unknown Territory And Explore. It's Made A Difference To Me And The Decisions That I've Made Over The Years About How To Approach A Project In This Music.

My Father Was Really Good With Math. It's A Funny Thing, I Don't Remember My Father Or My Mother Being So Mechanical-minded. My Father Always Wanted To Be A Doctor, But He Came From A Really Poor Family In Georgia, And There Was No Way He Was Going To Be A Doctor.

The Arts Have Always Served Relationships Between People Of Different Cultures So Well. In A Way, The Arts Function As A Very Serious Kind Of Ambassador.

People Are Afraid To Spend Money Now Because They Dont Know How Long Theyre Going To Be Working.

Without Wisdom, The Future Has No Meaning, No Valuable Purpose.

If You're Not Judging What Happens, Then You're Trusting What Others Are Doing, What You're Playing, And Trusting What You're Playing.and It Can Lead You To Other Ideas, To Something Maybe You Hadn't Expressed Before.

One Thing That Attracted Me To Buddhism Was The Support For This Larger Vision Of Values.

I Learned The Importance Of Being Nonjudgmental, Taking What Happens And Trying To Make It Work.that's Something You Should Apply To Life.

One Of The Greatest Attributes Of Jazz, I Think, Is That It Is That Open.

But, The Truth Is That Everyone Is Somebody Already.

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The Most Valuable Things In Life Are Priceless. They Are Courage, Compassion, Wisdom, Respect For Ourselves And Others, And A Host Of Characteristics That We Call The Beauty Of The Human Spirit.

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The True Artform Is Being A Human Being.

The Internet Opens Up A Whole New Range Of Possibilities In A Wide Range Of Areas.

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Creativity Shouldn't Be Following Radio; It Should Be The Other Way Around.

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I Am Not Fundamentally A Musician, I Am Fundamentally A Human Being.

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My First Grammy Wasn't Even In A Jazz Category, But Of Course I Was Really Excited. 'rockit' Was The Beginning Of Kind Of A New Era For The Whole Hip-hop Movement.

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Clare Fischer Was A Major Influence On My Harmonic Concept. He And Bill Evans, And Ravel And Gil Evans, Finally. You Know, That's Where It Really Came From. Almost All Of The Harmony That I Play Can Be Traced To One Of Those Four People And Whoever Their Influences Were.

Jazz Has Borrowed From Other Genres Of Music And Also Has Lent Itself To Other Genres Of Music.

All You Have To Do Is Play One Note. But It Needs To Be The Right Note.

Since Time Is A Continuum, The Moment Is Always Different, So The Music Is Always Different.

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Inhumanity To Man

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Genres Of Music

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So I Didn't Actually Change My Name The Way Some People Did.

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I'm Always Interested In Looking Forward Toward The Future. Carving Out New Ways Of Looking At Things.

Looking Forward

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I've Been A Religious, Spiritual Person For A Long Time.

You Can Practice To Attain Knowledge, But You Can't Practice To Attain Wisdom.

Music Truly Is The Universal Language.

Universal Language

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We Are Eternally Linked Not Just To Each Other But Our Environment.

Being Vulnerable Is Allowing Yourself To Trust. That's Hard For A Lot Of People To Do. They Feel A Lot More Secure If They Kind Of Put Walls Around Themselves. Then They Don't Have To Trust Anybody But Themselves. But To Allow You To Trust Not Only Yourself But Trust Others Means - Is What's Required To Be Vulnerable, And To Have That Kind Of Trust Takes Courage.

Inspiration Is Constantly In The Air. It's Up To Us To Develop The Sensitivity To Pick Up On It.

Most People Define Themselves By What They Do - 'i'm A Musician.' Then One Day It Occurred To Me That I'm Only A Musician When I'm Playing Music - Or Writing Music, Or Talking About Music. I Don't Do That 24 Hours A Day. I'm Also A Father, A Son, A Husband, A Citizen - I Mean, When I Go To Vote, I'm Not Thinking Of Myself As 'a Musician.'

I'm Aware That A Lot Of What Is Happening In Jazz Has Not Had A Very Dynamic Change In A Long Time.

Of Course, It's Not The Technique That Makes The Music; It's The Sensitivity Of The Musician And His Ability To Be Able To Fuse His Life With The Rhythm Of The Times. This Is The Essence Of Music.

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When I Was Young I Used To Listen To Everything.

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We Need To Move Into A Culture Of Peace. What I Hope To Promote Is The Idea That We All Need Each Other And That The Greatest Happiness In Life Is Not How Much We Have But How Much We Give. That's A Wealth That's Priceless. You Can't Buy Compassion.

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