41 Quotes by Artie Shaw

If I could have done anything more, it would have been less

When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.'

I like the music. I love it & live it in fact. But for me the business part of music just plain stinks.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana, and will expire on cocaine.

Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel.

You have no idea of the women I didn't marry.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

That's the clarinet I used to use... but it's just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you're supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops... and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex, it beats anything...

If you wanna dance, a windshield wiper'll do it-all you need is a beat.