Herbie Hancock quotes:

It's part of life to have obstacles. It's about overcoming obstacles; that's the key to happiness.

Forget about trying to compete with someone else. Create your own pathway. Create your own new vision.

In World War II, jazz absolutely was the music of freedom, and then in the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, same thing. It was all underground, but they needed the food of freedom that jazz offered.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

The cool thing is that jazz is really a wonderful example of the great characteristics of Buddhism and great characteristics of the human spirit. Because in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we are creating in the moment. At our best, we're non-judgmental.

When I was in my early teens, I remember coming to the conclusion that your life never ends.

When I was six, my best friend's parents bought him a piano. My mother noticed that every time I would go to his house, the first thing I would say to him was 'Levester' - His name was Levester - I said, 'Levester, can I go play your piano?' So, on my 7th birthday, my parents bought me a piano.

I think risk-taking is a great adventure. And life should be full of adventures.

Back in the day for me was a great time in my life - I was in my 20s. Most people refer to their experiences in their twenties as being a highlight in their life. It's a period of time where you often develop your own way, your own sound, your own identity, and that happened with me, when I was with a great teacher - Miles Davis.

Music truly is the universal language.

I don't see how we can have both the freedoms we had before and the safety net that we all need considering the way the world is today. And that's just because human beings can't trust each other. We've given in over and over to some of the darkest elements that exist in life itself.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the African American experience, speaks more about the human experience than the experience of a particular people.

Most people define themselves by what they do - 'I'm a musician.' Then one day it occurred to me that I'm only a musician when I'm playing music - or writing music, or talking about music. I don't do that 24 hours a day. I'm also a father, a son, a husband, a citizen - I mean, when I go to vote, I'm not thinking of myself as 'a musician.'

We need to move into a culture of peace. What I hope to promote is the idea that we all need each other and that the greatest happiness in life is not how much we have but how much we give. That's a wealth that's priceless. You can't buy compassion.

I got a chance to work with Miles Davis, and that changed everything for me, 'cause Miles really encouraged all his musicians to reach beyond what they know, go into unknown territory and explore. It's made a difference to me and the decisions that I've made over the years about how to approach a project in this music.

It's easy to get sidetracked with technology, and that is the danger, but ultimately you have to see what works with the music and what doesn't. In a lot of cases, less is more. In most cases, less is more.

One of the most important functions of jazz has been to encourage a hope for freedom, for people living in situations of intolerance or struggle.

Being vulnerable is allowing yourself to trust. That's hard for a lot of people to do. They feel a lot more secure if they kind of put walls around themselves. Then they don't have to trust anybody but themselves.

As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in. So, I'm concerned about peace. I'm concerned about - about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.

While knowledge may provide useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future.

I don't view myself as a musician anymore - I view myself as a human being that functions as a musician when I'm functioning as a musician, but that's not 24 hours a day. That's really opened me up to even more perspectives because now I look at music, not from the standpoint of being a musician, but from the standpoint of being a human being.

Music is not the only reason that I practice Buddhism anymore because it has affected my whole life.

I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

My father was really good with math. It's a funny thing, I don't remember my father or my mother being so mechanical-minded. My father always wanted to be a doctor, but he came from a really poor family in Georgia, and there was no way he was going to be a doctor.

Hip-hop is all over the planet.

It's not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

I hope to use dialogue and culture as a means of bringing people of various cultures together, and using that as a way to resolve conflict.

I've been a religious, spiritual person for a long time.

To my wife, I'm not Herbie Hancock the musician. I'm her husband. When I'm talking to a neighbor, I'm a neighbor. When I vote, I'm a citizen.

We are eternally linked not just to each other but our environment.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

One of the greatest experiences I ever had was listening to a conversation with Joni Mitchell and Wayne Shorter. Just to hear them talking, my mouth was open. They understand each other perfectly, and they make these leaps and jumps because they don't have to explain anything.

World peace is no longer some pie-in-the-sky thing, because no single person or country is going to solve it on their own.

I'm always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

See, there were certain rules I'd always used, and people like Trane, they would break those rules.

Since time is a continuum, the moment is always different, so the music is always different.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

I try to practice with my life.

Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.

The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique.

I try stuff. I synthesize what's of value with some of the other things I have at my disposal.

I just express myself in any way I feel is appropriate at the moment.

My hope is that the music will serve as a metaphor for the actions taken by the inhabitants of this wonderful planet as a call for world harmony on all levels.

But I have to be careful not to let the world dazzle me so much that I forget that I'm a husband and a father.

I never dreamed I would be a Goodwill Ambassador, and for UNESCO. Perfect organization. It is apolitical and it's about education, science and culture. I mean that is what I live. That is what UNESCO is really about; it's all about bringing human beings together with one common goal, which is to move human kind forward.

Globalization means we have to re-examine some of our ideas, and look at ideas from other countries, from other cultures, and open ourselves to them. And that's not comfortable for the average person.

The arts have always served relationships between people of different cultures so well. In a way, the arts function as a very serious kind of ambassador.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

I spent five years, at least, working with Miles. Together, we recorded ESP, Nefertiti, Sorcerer -- and I can tell you; each of these albums instantly became jazz classics. Hey, we had Wayne Shorter playing tenor sax, Ron [Carter] on bass, Tony Williams played drums. That was great band we had.

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students' creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.

We can all be ourselves, be true to ourselves, and all be together.

A jazz musician is not a jazz musician when he or she is eating dinner or when he or she is with his parents or spouse or neighbors. He's above all a human being . . . the true artform is being a human being.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

If you're not judging what happens, then you're trusting what others are doing, what you're playing, and trusting what you're playing.And it can lead you to other ideas, to something maybe you hadn't expressed before.

Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept. He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.

The first thing I ever heard about synthesizers, they were being used in rock.

I've been practising Buddhism for forty years, and that's what has led me to this path of discovering my own humanity and recognizing the humanity in others.

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.

The most valuable things in life are priceless. They are courage, compassion, wisdom, respect for ourselves and others, and a host of characteristics that we call the beauty of the human spirit.

I've always been interested in science. I used to take watches apart and clocks apart, and there's little screws, and a little this and that, and I found out if I dropped one of them, that thing ain't gonna work.

Buddhism has turned me on to my humanness, and is challenging my humanness so that I can become more human.

It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

I've had a life that has taken many interesting paths. I've learned a lot from mentors who were instrumental in shaping me, and I want to share what I've learned.

When the suggestion was made that I might consider doing music of Joni Mitchell, I thought it was a fantastic idea. Joni, I admire not only for her music but for her person, because she's a person that really stands out for what she believes in.

It's part of my nature. I get excited when trying out new stuff, whether it be an idea or equipment. It stimulates my juices.

So much of what I create has been due to the influence of Miles Davis and Donald Byrd, and so many of those that have passed on. Their music, their legacy lives on with the rest of us because we are so highly influenced by their experience and what they have given us.

You make different colors by combining those colors that already exist.

You can practice to learn a technique, but I'm more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.

I like to be on the edge, on the cutting edge, or be into the unknown, into the territory where I have to depend on being in the moment and depending on my instincts.

The strongest thing that any human being has going is their own integrity and their own heart. As soon as you start veering away from that, the solidity that you need in order to be able to stand up for what you believe in and deliver what's really inside, it's just not going to be there.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom.

I like to present something that the people haven't seen or haven't heard before. Otherwise they might as well just stay home and play the record.

Take whatever happens and try to make it work.

Each human being exists because there's something they have to offer for the evolution of the universe that only they can fulfill.

We need to put into practice the idea of embracing other cultures. We need to be shaping the kind of world we want to live in instead of waiting for someone else or some other entities to do it for us.

One thing that attracted me to Buddhism was the support for this larger vision of values.

As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in.So, I'm concerned about peace.I'm concerned about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.

Being a musician is what I do, but it's not what I am.

Being vulnerable is allowing yourself to trust. That's hard for a lot of people to do. They feel a lot more secure if they kind of put walls around themselves. Then they don't have to trust anybody but themselves. But to allow you to trust not only yourself but trust others means - is what's required to be vulnerable, and to have that kind of trust takes courage.

But, the truth is that everyone is somebody already.

Creativity shouldn't be following radio; it should be the other way around.

Don't be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That's where the joy and the adventure lie.

Fact is that I played piano and performed, as a young kid, a Mozart piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra . Don't forget I was only eleven-years-old and to be on the stage at that age had tremendous impact on me. Basically love for classical music and performing as a kid on the big stage probably led toward this decision, which meant that music is going to be my big love but also my profession.

Forget about trying to compete with someone else. Create your own pathway. Create your own new vision,

Getting the Oscar had the biggest impression on me.

I am not fundamentally a musician, I am fundamentally a human being.

I don't go around, the way many musicians do, with earbuds in my ear listening to my iPod all day and just sticking my head in the music all the time.

I don't look at music from the standpoint of being a musician; I look at it from the standpoint of being a human being.

I don't mind being classified as a jazz artist, but I do mind being restricted to being a jazz artist. My foundation has been in jazz, though I didn't really start out that way. I started in classical music, but my formative years were in jazz, and it makes a great foundation.

I don't think there are any pure Africans of the African Americans, but the African part of our history was pretty much taken away from us during slavery, so the 60s gave us a chance, because of the civil rights movement, to kind of re-examine and make some sort of formal connection to our African-ness.

I feel a lot more secure about the directions I take, than I might have, had I not practiced Buddhism.

I have to care and I have to be honest and have the courage to be vulnerable. If that happens, then that's the best I can do. To just be a puppet for the audience is not very courageous. Just to do whatever they say they want - because a lot of times people will hear something new that they hadn't heard before and get turned on by a new experience and will want to hear more of that.

I keep recycling and repackaging music that I've done in the past, as though I can't write anymore. Like, okay, I'm done with that. But I need to kind of prod myself again into come on, Herbie, get off your duff and start writing some new music.

I learned the importance of being nonjudgmental, taking what happens and trying to make it work.That's something you should apply to life.

I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music.

I look for what's of value and extract that. I don't look to criticize.

I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.

I think I was supposed to play jazz.

I think there's a great beauty to having problems. That's one of the ways we learn.

I'm aware that a lot of what is happening in jazz has not had a very dynamic change in a long time.

I'm one of the people who was a pioneer in encouraging musicians, early in the game, to get interested in technology, and now all the musicians are getting into it.

I'm very conscious of the idea of trying to each time present something that I haven't presented before. It's a challenge to me to find something new, to find something innovative, but it's also very exciting.

In the past, there's always been one leader that has led the pack to development of the music.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

Inspiration is constantly in the air. It's up to us to develop the sensitivity to pick up on it.

It is people's hearts that move the age.

It might be something as simple as saying the right word to the right person at the right time-and that could change the course of history. You never really know. But the whole thing is to work at the process of being in sync with the universe, so that everything will align at the proper time so that you can deliver that which is your life mission. And that's why we're here as individuals. And then there's our contribution to the collective. It makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

I've been curious ever since I was a little kid.

I've never really been interested in doing a solo piano tour.

Jazz has been the voice of freedom for so many countries over the past half century,

Jazz is a music that is open enough to borrow from any other form of music, and has the strength to influence any other form of music.

Jazz is really about the human experience. It's about the ability of human beings to take the worst of circumstances and struggles and turn it into something creative and constructive. That's something that's built into the fiber of every human being. And I think that's why people can respond to it. They feel the freedom in it. And the attributes of jazz are also admirable. It's about dialogue. It's about sharing. And teamwork. It's in the moment, and it's nonjudgmental.

Jazz to me is the spirit of freedom. I mean real freedom. Freedom to explore. Freedom to express. Freedom to pour out your guts.

Life is not about finding our limitations, it's about finding our infinity.

Like no matter what happens, this would be the ultimate, they can make something positive happen.