Thelonious Monk

“All musicians are subconsciously mathematicians.”

“The piano ain't got no wrong notes.”

“A genius is the one most like himself.”

“I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you're doing — even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.”

“Wrong is right.”

“I don't have a definition of jazz... you're just supposed to know it when you hear it.”

“Sometimes it's to your advantage for people to think you're crazy.”

“Whatever you think can't be done, somebody will come along and do it.”

“Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music is just imagined.”

“The only cats worth anything are the cats that take chances.”

“It's always night, or we wouldn't need light.”

“There are no foreign notes.”

“You've got to dig it to dig it, you dig?”

“What you don't play can be more important than what you do play.”

“Jazz is my adventure.”

“Writing music is like writing a letter. You're trying to get a message to somebody.”

“You know, everybody has a different taste in music and you have to like what you like.”