I got in the school band and the school choir. It all hit me like a ton of bricks, everything just came out. I played percussion for a while, and stayed after school forever just tinkering around with different things, the clarinets and the violins.

It slaps your dignity just right. I loved the idea of these proud, dignified black men, and I saw the older ones wounded, and it wounded me ten times as much because I couldn't stand seeing them hurt like this... view

By: Quincy Jones

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My father was a carpenter, a very good carpenter. He also worked for the Jones boys. They were not family members, we weren't related at all. They started the policy racket in Chicago, and they had the five and dime store... view

By: Quincy Jones

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We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old... view

By: Quincy Jones

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Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing... view

By: Quincy Jones

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It's easy to get next to music theory, especially between your peers and music classes and so forth. You just pay attention. I had a good ear, so I realized that printed music was just about reminding you what to play... view

By: Quincy Jones

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Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they're 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know?.. view

By: Quincy Jones

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We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again... view

By: Quincy Jones

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I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home... view

By: Quincy Jones

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It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do... view

By: Quincy Jones

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We were in the heart of the ghetto in Chicago during the Depression, and every block - it was probably the biggest black ghetto in America - every block also is the spawning ground practically for every gangster, black and white, in America too... view

By: Quincy Jones

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I went with Lionel Hampton for three years. Out of that came a trip to Europe... view

By: Quincy Jones

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When I was about five or seven years old my mother was placed in a mental institution and so we were with our father who worked very hard, and we had to figure a lot of things out... view

By: Quincy Jones

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