Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe you could try some different approaches.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Even in these times, there are still neighbors that will turn their backs on neighbors.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

I believed in studying just because I knew education was a privilege. It was the discipline of study, to get into the habit of doing something that you don't want to do.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

I feel like a lot of the fundamental material, I've assimilated. So now the question is: Am I going to really get into my spiritual inheritance of music and really develop my abilities?
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

I got my first trumpet when I was six years old, from Al Hirt. My father was playing in Al Hirt's band at that time.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

I sounded like myself. People be saying I sound like Miles or Clifford Brown.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel, listening to it.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

It's important to address young people in the reopening of New Orleans. In rebuilding, let's revisit the potential of American democracy and American glory.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Maybe the preoccupation with technological progress has overshadowed our concern with human progress.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

My daddy expected that my brothers and I and our generation would make the world a better place. He had lived in an America of continual social progress.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Only a few act - the rest of us reap the benefits of their risk.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

People have taken time out of their day and spent their money to come sit down at a concert. And it's jazz music-it's not easy for them to get to it. I don't want them ever to feel that I'm taking their presence lightly.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Thank the good Lord for a job.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

The bandstand is a sacred place.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

The first time I ever played the trumpet in public, I played the Marine Hymn. I sounded terrible.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

The musicians I respected were much older than me. I expected them to cut my head, and they did.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

The rebuilding of New Orleans is an important point in the history of the United States.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division, rob you of your freedom, and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

There really have only ever been a few people in each generation who step out, are willing to put themselves on the line, and risk everything for their beliefs.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

There's the tradition in jazz of having the Battle of the Bands, and you do not want to get your head cut when you're playing.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

This rebuilding of New Orleans gives us the perfect opportunity to see if we're ready to extend the legacy of Dr. King.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Trumpet players see each other, and it's like we're getting ready to square off or get into a fight or something.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

We looked up to our father. He still is much greater than us.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

What I really have in my head, my imagination, my understanding of music, I never really get that out.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

What, other than injustice, could be the reason that the displaced citizens of New Orleans cannot be accommodated by the richest nation in the world?
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

When I auditioned for my high school band the band director was excited because my father was known to be a great musician. When he heard me, he said 'Are you sure you're Ellis's son?'
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

When I first came to New York everybody on the scene would treat me like I could play, but I couldn't.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote

Whenever you face a man who's playing your instrument, there's a competition.
- Wynton Marsalis Quote