Pat Metheny

I'm always trying to find 'connections' between things. That art is the juxtaposition of a lot of things that seem unrelated but add up to something recognizable.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

I think I have a basic sound aesthetic that is in most of what I do.

I'm always inspired when there's a robustness to the material in front of me.

The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.

My older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in classical situations. He was already an amazing talent.

I think I represent a more left-wing view of what jazz is.

The first thing I learned was the theme from Peter Gunn.

Whatever my recorded output is, it's a reflection of a general love of music.

It's more about conception and touch and spirit and soul than whether my hardware was in place.

There are musicians who go through their lives sort of shedding their skins. For me, I've always felt backward-compatible to Version 1.0.

For me, let's keep jazz as folk music. Let's not make jazz classical music. Let's keep it as street music, as people's everyday-life music. Let's see jazz musicians continue to use the materials, the tools, the spirit of the actual time that they're living in, as what they build their lives as musicians around.

What I look for in musicians is a sense of infinity.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times.

When talking about writing, I often use the analogy of archaeology. There are these great tunes all around. Your skill as a musician allows you to pick them out without breaking them.

I don't know if I would qualify as mainstream. I think I have managed to function pretty successfully on the fringes of the music world and have been able to play exactly what I have wanted the way I have wanted.

The guitar for me is a translation device. It's not a goal. And in some ways, jazz isn't a destination for me. For me, jazz is a vehicle that takes you to the true destination - a musical one that describes all kinds of stuff about the human condition and the way music works.

I hate the way chorus boxes sound.

I was able to work with the best musicians in Kansas City starting when I was really young.

Listening is the key to everything good in music.

I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about jazz.

If you come to my house, you won't see a wall of trophies or things like that. I'm sort of 'on to the next thing' all the time.

From 1962 to 1965, the guitar became this icon of youth culture, thanks mostly to the Beatles.

I realized that equipment really had little to do with why I sound like the way I sound.

I was deep in the zone of practicing almost constantly.