Pat Metheny

“The real thing that you're trying to do is to be a better person. And music is one of the ways to do that.”

“I'm not interested in being a virtuoso. I'm interested in telling a story.”

“The only way to learn is by playing.”

“For me, the guitar is a vehicle for telling stories.”

“I've always been a musician, I've always been a person who's been about the music.”

“The first thing you have to do is get to the point where you can just be yourself. It takes a long time.”

“The way I look at it, a solo is a musical composition.”

“What I look for in a musician is a sense of what's not there, a sense of what's possible.”

“Music is a language that doesn't speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it's in the bones, it's in the bones.”

“You have to be willing to be bad at something to get good at it.”

“Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.”

“I always felt that the great fun of being a musician is that you're always learning.”

“It's really about being a storyteller. You're telling a story, and the guitar is your voice.”

“Jazz is the closest thing to the way I think.”

“The whole point of music is to be able to share it.”

“I think the most important thing is to be honest with yourself.”

“It's a very difficult thing to be a parent. It's a very difficult thing to be a child.”

“The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.”

“The thing about jazz is that it's a very honest music.”

“I'm interested in music that is of our time.”