27 Quotes by Carla Bley

Listening is more important than anything else because that’s what music is. Somebody is playing something and you’re receiving it. It is sending and receiving.

What’s interesting about a person without problems?

I still prefer the bebop of the ’40s. The very stuff I started out with is still the best to me. I have come full circle.

I just got to hear every note. After I left Birdland, I started working at the Jazz Gallery. In the end, I still couldn’t play, but I knew how to listen. I was probably the world’s best listener.

I don’t need much coaxing.

When you are studying jazz, the best thing to do is listen to records or listen to live music. It isn’t as though you go to a teacher. You just listen as much as you can and absorb everything.

There are times when what’s happening in rock is the best music in the world, and there are times when there is nothing worthwhile at all.

I don’t think you can ever regain your ignorance.

I write very slowly.