Charlie Parker quotes:

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

It's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with the music, against it, behind it. It pushes it. It helps it. Help is the big thing. It has no continuity of beat, no steady chug-chug. Jazz has, and that's why bop is more flexible.

It's just music. It's playing clean and looking for the pretty notes.

I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.

Learn the changes, then forget them.

Man, there's no boundary line to art!

Don't be afraid, just play the music.

Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. ... You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.

When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.

I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. ... I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.

Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'

I can play all I know in eight bars.

I look at melody as rhythm.

You've got to learn your instrument.

I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.

Bop is no love-child of jazz.