Nat King Cole Quotations

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Critics don't buy records. They get 'em free.
Every now and then we play a dreamy little thing, and I sort of ooze and doze off.
Everybody who has a creative mind should sit down and try something new.
For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.
Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking.
Girls stick closer to home. The moment I heard it was a girl, all past feelings went away. I'm happy.
He's supposed to be a record expert. But somebody else writes his script and even picks out his discs. A helluva way to a make a million bucks.
I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.
I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.
I can't bear to see myself even in movies. The feeling is complex. I can't stand the sight of myself.
I didn't want my dad to see me busted.
I don't know of anyone who's achieved so much in so short a time... and so deserving, too... except Harry Belafonte.
I guess I just get to the heart of people's feelings, that's all.
I knew they were trying to show me that they didn't sanction what had happened. I thanked them for coming to the show. I was born here. I just came here to entertain.
I know that a lot of you critics think I've been fluffing off jazz. But I'm even more interested in it now than I ever was.
I know we have an audience. And it's not a teenage audience. Half are older women and a third are men.
I learned the hard way. I had my little follies. I was conned out of a lot of the money and I gave a lot of it away. But when I got in trouble, I got the message.
I looked at that kid for a long time. I felt something impossible for me to explain. Then it came to me-I was a father.
I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.
I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music.
I must have worked every beer joint from San Diego to Bakersfield. It was a tough workout.
I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.
I took a chance on Nature Boy, though I think Lost April is a much better song. The public liked Nature Boy because it was something different.
I was a guinea pig for some hoodlums who thought they could hurt me and frighten me and keep other Negro entertainers from the South.
I'm a golf student and I've been doing some motion picture photography. I'm also a pretty fair record collector.
I'm a musician at heart, I know I'm not really a singer. I couldn't compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it..
I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.
I'm going to keep pace with everything that happens.
I'm going to take the Trio on a concert tour of the U.S. playing a jazz program.
I'm in the music business for one purpose - to make money.
I'm not a political figure or a controversial person. I'm just an entertainer, and my job is to perform. If I stop because of some state law, I'm deserting the people.
I'm not mad at a soul. I leave that to the other guys.
I'm not playing for other musicians. We're trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We'll keep him happy.
I'm proud of our court. It knocks back a lot of the propaganda the Communists put out about the way America treats her Negroes.
If I could read it, I could play it.
If I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain.
If bop has any social significance at all, it's a reflection of past trends. It was born among adolescent musicians in 1939 and 1940.
If you give me a million dollars, I'll leave the country.
In the evenings may I come and sing to you, all the songs that I would like to bring to you?
It's not the people in the South who create racial problems - it's the people who are governing.
Jazz is pretty dead commercially. We don't do bop anymore.
Lush Life is too subtle for any real wide appeal.
Madison Avenue is in the North, and that's where the resistance is. There is reluctance on its part to sell my show.
Man, I love show business, but I don't want to die for it.
Maybe this is all a happy dream, and maybe it won't work. But I'm going to try, and hard, and you can't blame me for trying.
Mona Lisa? What kind of title is that for a song?
Music can't be put into words, it can't be described on a typewriter.
Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.
Musicians are losing their imaginations. They say the public isn't wise, but it's much wiser than they think.
My father was a preacher, and he used to tell me a lot of stories.
My wife and I like our home very much and we intend to stay there the same as any other American citizens would.
Networks just don't go around putting shows on TV without sponsors, and I will always be grateful for this opportunity.
No Negro has a TV show. I'm breaking that down.
Omaha, Nebraska, was the biggest break in my life. There was nothing to do there but think of songs.
Only time, education and plenty of good schooling will make anti-segregation work.
People are sick of the old stereotyped stuff. That's the reason the box office has slumped.
People don't slip. Time catches up with them.
Primarily I'm a meat man, although once in a while I toy with a few vegetables.
Sometimes I ask myself, Am I worth all this?
The Supreme Court is having a hard time integrating schools. What chance do I have to integrate audiences?
The Trio has been successful commercially, but I think trios have gone about as far as trios can go. I'm trying something different.
The bongo and conga drums give the rhythm we were supposed to give. That leaves us free to do much more.
The only prejudice I've found anywhere in TV is in some advertising agencies, and there isn't so much prejudice as just fear.
The only sport I'm not interested in is horse racing. That's because I don't know the horses personally.
The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.
The sheriff is at the cash register, and if I don't get a hit soon, I don't know what I'll do.
The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.
The work will be modern music... experimentation... a little like Debussy or Gershwin's serious compositions.
There's just one thing I can't figure out. My income tax!
They offered me a new time, but I decided not to take it. I feel played out. There won't be shows starring Negroes for a while.
Thousands of white people in the audience could see how terrible it is for an innocent man to be subjected to such barbaric treatment.
We clicked with pop songs, pretty ballads and novelty stuff.
We had to learn the complex and tender art of being parents.
We have to broaden our scope. The change gives us that progressive feeling.
We're only waiting until we reach a firm enough point where we can mix the real stuff with the popular and still have an audience.
When you get men to look at a vocalist, you've really done something.
Where could I go and meet some of those Aborigines?
Wouldn't we have been crazy if we'd turned right around after getting a break and started playing pure jazz again?
You can't cling to the past. Too many different things are coming into the world.
You may run your family, but you won't run mine.
You've got to change with the public's taste.