Bobby McFerrin quotes:

Part of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really happy fulfilled adults.

Well, I started conducting kind of by accident. I wanted to give myself a special birthday present for my fortieth birthday, and I was living in San Francisco at the time and I started attending some of the concerts and then simply dropping hints.

I'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet.

Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.

I like a very dark house, just black. I sit there and just think. Once I'm still and quiet inside, I'll begin. It's very personal; it has to be. One song may be Bach, the next blues, a song from TV, or a nursery rhyme or jazz piece.

I want to write a book of poetry, as well as children's stories.

If I sing "you broke my heart, you left me flat," everyone knows exactly what that means - they know the story. But if I sing a line that's plaintive or wailing, people can experience their own set of emotions and their own story. Each of us might give that phrase a different meaning. It's open to interpretation, and one song becomes a thousand songs. I love that.

I prepared five songs, I sang them, and he hired me. I started working about a month later at the piano bar.

Part of our responsibility as parents, as adults, is to set examples for children. But we have to like children in order to be really happy fulfilled adults

In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Don't worry. Be happy.

Then I left that school and I went to Cerritos College, which was in southern California; they had one of the best big band programs in the country at the time.

The true musician is to bring light into people's hearts.

I played piano as a kid; I still play a little bit.

Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra - besides singing in the college chorus and things like that.

If I can bring joy into the world, if I can get people to stop thinking about their pain for a moment, or the fact the tomorrow morning they're going to get up and tell their boss off... then I'll be successful.

I think we listen to music because we want to be changed. Music is not solely for our entertainment. Music has such tremendous power to bring joy. To me, that's our job as artists. Not happiness, not a groove, whatever. You must bring joy. I think that's the assignment. I have no doubt about it.

Then I came up with this crazy idea just to walk out on the stage with no band at all and just start singing whatever came to mind. I actually fought the idea for a while because it seemed almost too radical, but it became obvious what I was supposed to be doing.

It's not that I don't love the song. My songs are like my children: some you want around and some you want to send off to college as soon as possible.

If I can bring joy into the world, then I'll be successful.

Sometimes mistakes are the best thing that can happen, because they might lift you...out of your complacency, and open your mind up to a whole other area that you wouldn't have gone to intentionally.

I do a lot of performing, but don't get a chance to go to the studio and write good music.

Here's a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don't worry, be happy.

When you worry your face will frown, that will bring everybody down, so don't worry BE HAPPY!:)

Here's a little song I wrote You might want to sing it note for note Don't worry, be happy In every life we have some trouble But when you worry you make it double Don't worry, be happy Don't worry, be happy now

I try not to "perform." I try to come on stage and be myself, to sing the way I would in a room by myself, to interact with the audience the way I would relate to them if we were in my kitchen drinking tea and making up silly songs. Maybe the way to get past the fear of being ourselves is simply to try it more often.

I did the one concert, and I was not bitten by the conducting bug, and I thought I was done, but then the phone started to ring, and gradually, over time, I started conducting more and more. Now a third of my performances are with orchestras.

My father was a very disciplined singer who worked hard at his craft, and I was around that growing up.

The voice gets to the soul of a person more than any other instrument. Because it's the voice. It sings talks, it cries, it laughs, it squeals, it barks, it shouts it whispers, There is no other instrument that can do that. We're born with it.

To me, it's our job as artists. You must bring joy.

This is what I want everyone to experience at the end of my concert... everyone has this sense of rejoicing. I don't want them to be blown away by what I do, I want them to have this sense of real, real joy from the depths of their being. Because I think when you take them to that place, then you open up a place where grace can come in.

Music is so powerful, it needs to be used for some kind of redeeming work. To lift peoples spirits, to lift their souls.

The audience is like my instrument. It's not just me up there, it's collaborative.

Whenever I'm onstage, I try my best not to think that I'm performing. It's simply another part of my day.

Improvisation is the courage to move from one note to the next.

When I'm on stage by myself, I don't have to think about anything. I don't have to worry about anything because I'm not responsible for anything except just opening my mouth and making sure music comes out.

Music is still part of my spiritual life. Sometimes I sing my prayers. When I get audiences singing, I hope I'm helping them feel connected to something beyond themselves.

To be a musician, you have to be honest... to be honest... to be honest.

I don't want anything to get in the way of me and my singing. I want my mind as clear as possible.

Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion - you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That's how life is.

I bury my mind in my book, the Bible. Every morning it's the first thing that I do. I've been doing it for years and years. So I want to come back here [to Israel] to see the places that I read about every day. It's very important to my faith to feed [my] spirit in Israel.

I couldn't do anything without faith. I couldn't open up my eyes, I couldn't walk, I couldn't speak, I couldn't sing.

Musicians are the architects of heaven.

I use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.

My biggest musical influences are probably my parents.

I have a lot of albums yet to do.

Miles Davis turned his back to the audience when he came out on stage, and he offended people. But, he wasn't there to entertain; he was all about the music. I kind of do that.

But, if there's any aspect of my career that needs attention, it's writing.

I grew up in a time when being a musician and learning to be a musician was actually very wonderful.

When we listen to improvisational jazz, or solo classical violinists, the way they phrase and inflect melodies feels vocal, like they're talking to us. When I was figuring out how to perform solo, I wanted to move back and forth between bass riffs, melody, and harmony, so I often used sounds instead of - or alongside - the words of a song. I found that if I sang a line using the consonants, vowels, shadings, and inflection we recognize as human language sounds, people responded as if I were talking to them.

I'm not a scholar or a psychologist, so I don't really think about why. But I do think about what it means to sing to and with people, to offer music to them, and to ask them to spend time with me.

If I stand there, appreciating the world around me as full of amazing sounds and the possibility of new ones, I think that invites other people to see the world that way, too. I love sharing the experience of singing with people, and I love sharing my stories. But when it comes to teaching, I have a lot of help.

I think play and joy and feeling good deserve more of our time. I don't see why adults are supposed to grow out of those things. If I have a mission it's to make everyone who comes to my concerts leave feeling a heightened sense of freedom to play, sing, and enjoy themselves.

Inviting audiences to open up and hear things differently is an important part of what I do. But I still love to sing songs with words, too.

Remembering that life can be full of surprises is useful in any part of your life. You can try a new way of singing a song you've performed for years, a new way of showing your family your love for them, or a new recipe. Don't just play the licks you know. We're all improvising all the time - it's good to recognize that and embrace it.