George Gershwin

Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise.

It took me three weeks to write the 'Rhapsody in Blue.' I had always wanted to write something blue and Paul Whiteman inspired.

Upper berth, lower berth, that's the difference between talent and genius.

All great composers of the past spent most of their time studying. Feeling alone won't do the job. A man also needs technique.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.

It is always possible to create something original.

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

A skyscraper is at the same time a triumph of the machine and a tremendous emotional experience, almost breath-taking. Not merely its height but its mass and proportions are the result of an emotion, as well as of calculation.

I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise.

I want to say at once that I frankly believe that Irving Berlin is the greatest songwriter that has ever lived.... His songs are exquisite cameos of perfection, and each one of them is as beautiful as its neighbor. Irving Berlin remains, I think, America's Schubert.

All these tales of people sitting down and composing symphonies just as though they were writing a letter are very much exaggerated; at least, it isn't that way in my work.

Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want?

The extraordinary thing about my mother, she's so modest about me.

Look at the piano. You'll notice that there are white notes and black notes. Figure out the difference between them and you'll be able to make whatever kind of music you want.

Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise.

I didn't even start playing the piano until I was about 13 or 14. I guess I must have had a little talent or whatever-you-call-it, but I practised regularly, and that's what counts.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.

Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work.

When I'm in my normal mood, music drips from my fingers.