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"That's what I was trying to say when we were talking about sound. I think that every person, whether they play music or don't play music, has a sound - their own sound, that thing that you're talking about."
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"88% of what we call good songs aren't really good. They merely remind us of a good time we once had."

"Nothing pleases me more than to go into a room and come out with a piece of music."

"It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard "Heartbreak Hotel" I thought, this is it."

"I had this song called Helter Skelter, which is just a ridiculous song. So we did it like that, 'cuz I like noise."

"A song is the most intangible thing in the world."
Explore more quotes by Ornette Coleman

"No one has to learn to spell to talk, right? You see a little kid holding a conversation with an adult. He probably doesn't know the words he's saying, but he knows where to fit them to make what he's thinking logical to what you're saying."

"Actually, when I was in elementary school, I saw a saxophone. A band came to my school, and I saw this guy get up and play this solo. And I said, 'Oh man, what is that! That must be fantastic!'"

"You don't have to worry about being a number one, number two, or number three. Numbers don't have anything to do with placement. Numbers only have something to do with repetition."

"I decided, if I'm going to be poor and black and all, the least thing I'm going to do is to try and find out who I am. I created everything about me."

"If you decide you want to be treated good, and you treat someone else good, or you want to learn something, it's information. It's getting the right, good information."

"It just makes that person feel that what his work is is going to be more valid. But who wants to see a guy standing in front, looking like a bum, doing something that a bums don't do? This don't make sense."

"I think that those elements - light and sound - are beyond democratic. They're into the creative part of life."

"So, for instance, if you came to me, I'd ask,'Do you want to write? Do you want to improvise? Why do you want to play this instrument? What do you want to do?'"

"It's just someone has labelled us as having a different label to do what you do. I find that labels are the worst thing in the world for artistic expression."

"After I left Texas and went to California, I had a hard time getting anyone to play anything that I was writing, so I had to end up playing them myself. And that's how I ended up just being a saxophone player."
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