Quincy Jones was born on March 14, 1933, to Sarah Frances and Quincy Delight Jones.
He is an American producer, composer, songwriter, arranger, and television producer. He has worked in the entertainment sector for 70 years and has received 28 Grammy Awards, 80 Grammy Award nominations, and a Grammy Legend Award in 1992.
Jones first gained notoriety in the '50s as a jazz conductor and arranger before composing pop songs and film themes.
He effortlessly transitioned across musical genres, producing some of Lesley Gore's biggest pop singles in the early '60s and functioning as an arranger and conductor for a number of jazz singers Frank Sinatra and Count Basie collaborations during the same time.
For 'The Eyes Of Love' from the movie 'Banning', Jones earned the first African American nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1968.
For his work on the 1967 movie 'In Cold Blood', Jones was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score, making him the first African American to receive two nominations in a single year.
Quincy Jones Quotes On Music
Music is the essence of life. Here's a quote list for all music listeners out there!
“Everybody, no matter what vocation they’re looking at, should add music as an essential to their curriculum. Music can be a very important part of your soul and to your growth as a human being. It’s so powerful.”
"Imagine what a harmonious world it could be if every single person, both young and old shared a little of what he is good at doing."
"Melody is king, and don’t you ever forget it. Lyrics appear to be out front, but they’re not; they’re just an accompanying factor."
"I learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you’re supposed to listen twice as much as you talk."
“I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we’ve had in a long time. It’s sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.”
"Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That’s the soul of a country."
"Music was the one thing I could control. It was the one world that offered me freedom. When I played music, my nightmares ended."
"If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture."
"I’m a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from."
“Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together… Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances into freedom, friendship, hope, and dignity.”
"Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release."
"I like all music. The only music I don’t like is bad music."
"Music made me full, strong, popular, self-reliant and cool."
"When you produce an album, you’re dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it."
"A great song can make the worst singer in the world a star."
"Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important."
Quincy Jones Quotes On Life
Life is an adventure to be enjoyed, cherished, and lived. Live every moment of your life and enjoy reading the quote list below.
"I’ve been driven all my life by a spirit of adventure and a criminal level of optimism. I believed in my dreams because they were my only option."
“You Make Your Mistakes To Learn How To Get To The Good Stuff”
“Empty the cup every time and it comes back at twice as full. I developed that attitude when I was very, very young, when I decided I didn't want to be a gangster anymore. I'm going to do this better than anybody else did it in my life.”
"We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old."
"I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it."
"I've never been bored in my life, man. I've never been bored or lonely. Are you kidding? No way! I'm an orchestrator, a musician, a producer. I love everything."
"It’s the attitude about life, man. Looking at the light instead of the dark. Looking at love instead of fear."
"I improvised my life along the way – I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen."
"I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, 'Ain’t that the truth.'”
"There are two kinds of people: those who have been properly nurtured and those who haven’t. There’s really nothing in between. When you’ve been nurtured, you know it, and when you haven’t, you really know it."
"They say coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous"
"I've never looked back in my life. I don't want to see that stuff. I had blanked out a lot of stuff ... putting my mother in a straitjacket, my father holding her down, screaming."
"Check Your Ego at the Door"
"The people who make it to the top are addicted to their calling. You have to honor the gift God has given you. The people who get the call are the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid."
“It’s a matter of seeking out new ways to stay inspired, and creating paths that lead to a better future for yourself, and in turn, others.”
“Set up guideposts that routinely remind you of who you are, apart from the distraction of life.”
“The process is the most beautiful part.”
"It slaps your dignity just right. I loved the idea of these proud, dignified black men, and I saw the older ones wounded, and it wounded me ten times as much because I couldn't stand seeing them hurt like this."
Quincy Jones Quotes On Love
There is no greater peace than the greatness of one world. Here's a quote list with the best love quotes by Quincy Jones.
"All guys get into music because they love music and they also want to get the girls."
"I don't remember feeling love."
"I'd been in love before - I was always in love."
"When you produce an album, you're dealing with it theatrically. It has to have a structure, and the inner response to that is that the ear loves it."
"Young people should travel, and they don't. You can't know if you don't go."
"I was married for 36 years but now I'm free."
“The relationship with a producer and an artist is really special.It's got to be love and respect, amazing mutual respect for each other, because that's what makes a good record.”
“The first thing is to be humble with your creativity and graceful with your success.”
"I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything."
"I got in the school band and the school choir. It all hit me like a ton of bricks, everything just came out. I played percussion for a while, and stayed after school forever just tinkering around with different things, the clarinets and the violins."
"Oh, and it’s been, it's been so, so, so long/ Since I've been loved by name"
- 'Love Me By Name', Quincy Jones ft. Patti Austin, 1978
"Love me by name/ Love me by name/ Come on, come on, come on"
- 'Love Me By Name', Quincy Jones ft. Patti Austin, 1978
"I’m…shining/ Got the light from your love, ah ah ah, all over me"
- 'Love I Never Had It So Good', Quincy Jones ft. Patti Austin & Charles May, 1978
"Love (Love) I never had it (Never had it) so good/ Love (Love) I never had it (Never had it) so good"
- 'Love I Never Had It So Good', Quincy Jones ft. Patti Austin & Charles May, 1978
"But no matter how you try to/ You can't explain the places you find love"
- 'The Places You Find Love', Quincy Jones ft. Siedah Garrett, 1989
"You come upon the places you find love/ Love, love, remember..."
- 'The Places You Find Love', Quincy Jones ft. Siedah Garrett, 1989
"That gets you to the places that you find love/ Yeah, yeah"
-'The Places You Find Love', Quincy Jones ft. Siedah Garrett, 1989
"Never giving up (Never giving up)/ They still believe in love, sweet love"
-'The Places You Find Love', Quincy Jones ft. Siedah Garrett, 1989
"Oh, is there a wonder why/ I'm really feeling in the mood for love?"
- 'Moody's Mood For Love', Quincy Jones ft. Take 6, Rachelle Ferrell, 1995
"I'm sure our love together will endure a hurricane/ Oh my baby/ Won't you please let me love you/ And give a relief from this awful misery?"
- 'Moody's Mood For Love', Quincy Jones ft. Take 6, Rachelle Ferrell, 1995
Best Quincy Jones Quotes
You have to be a dreamer to achieve great things in life. Here's a quote list with the best Quincy jones quotes.
"I'm Pisces with Leo rising. The Pisces part is the dreamer. The Leo says, 'Let's execute.'"
"Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.'"
"Cherish your mistakes, and you won't keep making them over and over again. It's the same with heartbreaks and girls and everything else. Cherish them, and they'll put some wealth in you."
"I tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because it's not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power."
"Not one ounce of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me."
"Excellence isn’t an act, it’s a habit."
“Learn to deal with the valleys, the hills will take care of themselves.”
“The only justification for looking down on anyone, is that you're going to stop and pick them up.”
"There’s nothing in the world worse than having an opportunity that you’re not prepared for. Good luck usually follows the collision of opportunity and preparation – it’s a result of that collision. You’ve got to be prepared."
"So, make your mistakes now and make them quickly. If you’ve made the mistakes, you know what to expect the next time. That’s how you become valuable."
"Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I’m needed by someone. As long as you have that, you’re healthy."
"You cannot get an A if you’re afraid of getting an F."
"When you’re over the hill, that’s when you pick up speed."
"Everybody has their idiosyncrasies."
"You have to know that your real home is within."
“A person’s age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.”
“It’s amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don’t have anything else to do.”
“After every war, there was a significant change in the music, and I can understand how that happened. If you participate in protecting the country, you think you can be part of it, but you come back home and it’s worse than ever.”
