218 Quotes by Miles Davis

He sounded to me like he’s supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no one asked him a question.

Americans don’t like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don’t like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don’t like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make ’em a lot of money.

I hate how white people always try to take credit for something after they discover it. Like it wasn’t happening before they found out about it – which most times is always late, and they didn’t have nothing to do with it happening. Then, they try to take all the credit, try to cut everybody black out.

You have to be born with it. You can’t even buy it. If you could buy it, they’d have it at the next Newport Festival.

But you’ve got to have style in whatever you do – writing, music, painting, fashion, boxing, anything.

Bad music is what will ruin music, not the instruments musicians choose to play.

See, music is about style.

Naw, I wasn’t going to sell my principles for them. I wanted to be accepted as a good musician and that didn’t call for no grinning, but just being able to play the horn good. And that’s what I did then and now. Critics can take that or leave it.

I have to change. It's like a curse.