Artie Shaw Quotes

I like the music. I love it & live it in fact. But for me the business part of music just plain stinks. ~ Artie Shaw

I don't know a damn thing. I don't know what it's about. The longer I live, the more mysterious life is. ~ Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw was way ahead of most clarinetists and most jazz players. ~ Buddy DeFranco

Dance music-as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper ... a windshield wiper that's fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out-of-tune playing 'Melancholy Baby' and you've got dance music. ~ Artie Shaw

It ["Begin the Beguine"] became such a hit that it superseded anything that any band had ever had. It was the first time that a so-called swing band played something melodic and still gave it a beat. ~ Artie Shaw

An audience is in many respects no more than a mob under loose control. ~ Artie Shaw

That's the clarinet I used to use ... but it's just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you're supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops ... and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex, it beats anything ... ~ Artie Shaw

When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn't talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said 'But that's what we have in common. We both play clarinet.' I said, 'No, Benny, that's where we're different. You play clarinet, I play music.' ~ Artie Shaw

An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away. ~ Artie Shaw

Shoot for the moon - if you miss you'll end up in the stars. ~ Artie Shaw

Somebody asked me once, 'Do you think that swing will ever come back?' And I said, 'Do you think the 1938 Ford will ever come back?' ~ Artie Shaw

Maybe, in the final analysis, they saw me as something I wasn't and I tried to turn them into something they could never be. I loved them all but maybe I never understood any of them. I don't think they understood me. ~ Ava Gardner

If I could have done anything more, it would have been less ~ Artie Shaw

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less. ~ Artie Shaw

The bandleader is a musician trying to sell a mass commodity; and in order to do so successfully he must accommodate himself to mass standards. Unless he can do this comfortably, sooner or later he is sunk. ~ Artie Shaw

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana, and will expire on cocaine. ~ Artie Shaw

People ask what those women saw in me. Let's face it, I wasn't a bad-looking stud. But that's not it. It's the music; it's standing up there under the lights. A lot of women just flip; looks have nothing to do with it. You call Mick Jagger good-looking? ~ Artie Shaw

And so now, having been born, I'm going to rewind the film, so that my pink blanket flies off, my crib scoots across the floor as my umbilical cord reattaches, and I cry out as I'm sucked back between my mother's legs. She gets really fat again. Then back some more as a spoon stops swinging and a thermometer goes back into its velvet case. Sputnik chases its rocket trail back to the launching pad and polio stalks the land. There's a quick shot of my father as a twenty-year-old clarinetist, playing an Artie Shaw number into the phone, and then he's in church, age eight, being scandalized by the price of candles; and next my grandfather is untaping his first U.S. dollar bill over a cash register in 1931. Then we're out of America completely; we're in the middle of the ocean, the sound track sounding funny in reverse. A steamship appears, and up on a deck a lifeboat is curiously rocking; but then the boat docks, stern first, and we're up on dry land again, where the film unspools, back at the beginning... ~ Jeffrey Eugenides

The distance between me and Benny [Goodman], was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging. ~ Artie Shaw

There's such a cynicism about the phrase 'I laughed all the way to the bank.' It's as though money is what you're doing, rather than playing music. If you're playing a money game, why not get into banking? ~ Artie Shaw

I can't understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out & look at it? ~ Artie Shaw

I'm not comfortable with categories, and I distrust most definitions. The word 'definition' is based on the word 'finite,' which would seem to indicate that once we've defined something, we don't need to think about it anymore. ~ Artie Shaw

You have no idea of the people I didn't marry. ~ Artie Shaw

Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us. ~ George Bernard Shaw

I'm not very good at dating. I'm very decisive. If I like someone, then they're my boyfriend. It's pretty straightforward. ~ Vinessa Shaw

Waking up, for many people, is apparently a positive experience. There are twittering birds and the smell of fresh coffee fills the air.

These people do not live at my house. ~ Amy Petrie Shaw

I, Astaroth, Crown Prince of Hell, am in love with you, Layla Shaw. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. A hudred decades from now, I will still be in love with you, and it will be as fierce today as it will be a decade later. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

Any activity?" Robert asked.
"Not in the lasssht ten minutesh. Before that, very exshiting. I shaw Wolf Beta run by. There were vampiresh chassing her. She was yelling, 'Bill me, bloodshuckers! ~ Ilona Andrews

You can't rationally argue out
what wasn't rationally argued in. ~ George Bernard Shaw

The moment you place someone on a pedestal they will look down upon you. ~ Charlie Shaw

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Before I had crossed the threshold of my church I was made to realize that I was shepherd of a divided flock. ~ Anna Howard Shaw

he put his check to the hive.
"Remember me," he said, and he made his voice smooth as smoke. "Don't wake up, just listen out in your dreams, bees, and you'll hear. ~ Fiona Shaw

A true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art. ~ George Bernard Shaw

I can't talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes. ~ George Bernard Shaw

When it comes to James Shaw, it seems, I will never learn. ~ Cristin Terrill

We are the living graves of murdered beasts, slaughtered to satisfy our appetites. How can we hope in this world to attain the peace we say we are so anxious for? ~ George Bernard Shaw

I grew up listening to - it's kind of embarrassing - all classical music. ~ Caroline Shaw

If I could have gone on describing to you the beauties of this region, who knows but I might have made a fine addition to the literature of our age? ~ Robert Gould Shaw

His voice goads me and then I register the perfect rhythm he is creating in my tightly wound body. One, two, and then three fingers fill me, his hand rocking flawlessly against my quivering clitoris as he fucks me. Slowly at first and then the tempo increases as Shaw builds the pace. Before I know it I am panting as the sensations consume me. Eyes shut tight, I feel myself grinding against what feels like the palm of his hand or maybe his wrist, loving the friction it creates as Shaw penetrates me over and over again. ~ Felicity Brandon

All intellectual labor is inherently humorous ~ George Bernard Shaw

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship. ~ George Bernard Shaw

In an article on Bunyan lately published in the "Contemporary Review" - the only article on the subject worth reading on the subject I ever saw (yes, thank you, I am familiar with Macaulay's patronizing prattle about "The Pilgrim's Progress") etc. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Geniuses are horrid, intolerant, easily offended, sleeplessly self-conscious men, who expect their wives to be angels with no further business in life than to pet and worship their husbands. Even at the best they are not comfortable men to live with; and a perfect husband is one who is perfectly comfortable to live with. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Hollywood keeps before its child audiences a string of glorified young heroes, everyone of whom is an unhesitating and violent Anarchist. His one answer to everything that annoys him or disparages his country or his parents or his young lady or his personal code of manly conduct is to give the offender a "sock" in the jaw ... My observation leads me to believe that it is not the virtuous people who are good at socking jaws. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Maybe he'd never come across anybody as well versed at objectifying body parts as I was. In my defense, this was an occupational hazard; one of the tricks of my trade was the ability to work with whatever was at hand. Over the years I'd learned to pinpoint my focus to the width of a pubic hair if there was nothing else to work with. (...) Before my eyes -or, more precisely, in my mind- Rasher became Lovely Bum Man. ~ Aiden Shaw

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Trusting others is all good and well, but distrusting them is better. People are rotten so always expect the worst in them. This way, when people don't turn out as bad as you thought they'd be, you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's a lot better than being disappointed. Also, ~ R Shaw

When you think about the wasted time, you waste your time again. ~ Steven Shaw

I find it incredibly tedious, hate that it murders itself with its own conservative pomposity. ~ Fiona Shaw

I come from a land afar and a land up high. My abilities are only eclipsed by my excellent turn of phrase and if you open your mind, they could be your abilities too. ~ Thomas William Shaw

As a child, as far as I was concerned, my dad had an amazing job, and we had all the money we needed. My life was so fun and carefree that I didn't realize at all that we weren't rich - until I met someone rich. Still, I've never met a rich kid who grew up as happy as I did. ~ Artie Lange

He extended his hand, and one by one, everyone put their hands on top of his as a show of unity. ~ Mark Shaw

What's the use of money if you have to earn it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

All professions are conspiracies against the laity. ~ George Bernard Shaw

When we came into the studio I became more and more me, making the tracks and choosing the musicians, partly because a great deal of the time during Bridge, Artie wasn't there. ~ Paul Simon

Acting doesn't have to be threadbare misery all the time. ~ Fiona Shaw

Civilized society is one huge bourgeoisie: no nobleman dares now shock his greengrocer. ~ George Bernard Shaw

When I became 16 I started thinking seriously about singing. ~ Tommy Shaw

He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches. ~ George Bernard Shaw

I usually get involved in the interviews about the animators and the filmmaking in general, because I had a chance.I got to know, not only Marc Davis, but Frank Thomas, Artie Johnson, Ward Kimball, all these great animators, and just ask them all these questions about how they did certain things, what their trials and errors were, the ups and downs. ~ Andreas Deja

A man ought to be able to be fond of his wife without making a fool of himself about her. ~ George Bernard Shaw

People do not become great by doing great things. They do great things because they are great. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Even a good apple has a fighting chance ~ Stephen Shaw

Hell is not all paved with bad intentions. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Deploring change is the unchangeable habit of all Englishmen. If you find any important figures who really like change, such as Bernard Shaw, Keir Hardie, Lloyd George, Selfridge or Disraeli, you will find that they are not really English at all, but Irish, Scotch, Welsh, American or Jewish. Englishmen make changes, sometimes great changes. But, secretly or openly, they always deplore them. ~ Raymond Postgate

Few people think more than two or three times a year," Shaw reportedly said. "I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. ~ Steven D. Levitt

Readers have the power that professors pretend they wield. Millions of words of professorial contempt have failed to kill Kipling. Praising Shaw to the skies has been vain. ~ Gene Wolfe

Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one's heart; but death is a splendid thing - a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces. ~ George Bernard Shaw