68 Quotes by Charles Mingus

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.

They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.

If someone has been escaping reality, I don’t expect him to dig my music.

Whatever coast he’s on, a man should be himself. I don’t write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus.

If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There’d be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.

In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am.

Just because I’m playing Jazz I don’t forget about me. I play or write me the way I feel through Jazz.

I’m too busy playing. When I’m playing I don’t pay attention to who’s listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don’t listen to one instrument; you listen to music.