When I was 13, I started working in a nightclub with Ray Charles. That's the greatest school in the world, the school of the streets. Ray taught me how to read in Braille. He was only two years older than me, but it was like he was 100 years older.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the profound lessons learned from real-life experiences rather than formal education.
Quincy Jones reflects on his early experiences working with the legendary musician Ray Charles, highlighting the immense value of learning from life on the streets. He suggests that the wisdom gained from real-world interactions and mentorship can surpass traditional educational settings, demonstrating how significant personal growth can come from unique and unconventional sources.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of life experiences, Quincy Jones' quote could be used to highlight the value of mentorship.
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?
Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.
When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it.
You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.
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.
I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.
Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one.
It is easy to get used to the morning news, habituated. But don't. The morning news is yours to alter.
When we find ourselves unable to reason (as one often does when presented with, say, a problem in algebra) it is because our imagination is not touched. One can begin to reason only when a clear picture has been formed in the imagination. Bad teaching is teaching which presents an endless procession of meaningless signs, words and rules, and fails to arouse the imagination.
Because I don't have to be careful of people's feelings when I teach literature, and I do when I'm teaching writing.
In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words.
One can learn anything, anything at all, I thought, if provided by a gifted and passionate teacher.
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