"I had a trumpet, but I didn't want to be a trumpet player. I wanted to be some type of athlete or in some type of scholarly activity, be a chemist or something—I had my little chemistry set, and I like playing with it."

Wynton Marsalis Art See all quotes by Wynton Marsalis →

React to this quote

More by Wynton Marsalis

“Some stances are just conducive to swinging. If I stand up straight for too long it's harder to swing. Plus my feet hurt.”

“The reason why the music is important is that it's an art form— an ancient art form— that takes in the mythology of our people.”

“Flexibility is an essential part of Jazz. It's what gives Jazz music the ability to combine with all other types of music and not lose its identity.”

“I think that virtuosity is the first sign of morality in a musician. It means you're serious enough to practice.”

“They take your drawers off for you, they show your ass, they sell bullshit, they call themselves 'niggaz' and the women 'bitches' and 'hos' and it's fine with everybody. That's what the essence of decadence is.”

Resonant Thoughts

"When all is done, human life is, at the greatest, and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over…"

— Sir William Temple

Politics1628–1698

#humor

"People often think that a fiction is something untrue, but this is wrong. The word derives from the Latin fingere, to make. As something made, fiction is different from something discovered, as in phy…"

— Keith Oatley

Psychology1939

#writing

"We Jews in this century have been victims of destruction and mass slaughter on an unprecedented scale. We have seen every norm of humanity violated as we were treated like cattle rather than human bei…"

— Arthur Green

Religion1941

#Human Nature