Ed Rollins Quotes

Truly embracing the fragility and tensions of life...brings with it the possibility of true joy.

Disappointment always arrives before hope and the darkness of night comes before the dawn. Don't lose hope now because things will brighter with the new day.

Jazz never ends... it just continues.

Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it's impossible to turn back.

I am an employment hyena. I am happy to make a meal of what the lions leave behind.

To believe is human to doubt is divine.

Keep your blood clean, your body lean, and your mind sharp.

Life will not break your heart. It'll crush it.

I miss playing with Miles. I did play with him a little while before he left the planet, but even at that time I longed to maybe do some things together.

My love runs deeper than the wounds.

When life hands you a lemon, say, 'Oh yeah, I like lemons! What else ya got?

I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me.

It's so painful to be next to someone you feel strongly about and know you can't say the things you want to.

We spend millions of dollars to remove pain from our lives. It's why so many people get hooked on painkillers. The body becomes addicted to painlessness. That tells you a lot.

Best not to mix the past with the present. The present paints the past with gold. The past paints the present with lead.

If you have an idea of what you want to do in your future, you must go at it with almost monastic obsession. [...] You have to go at it single-mindedly and let nothing get in your way.

I'm mellower now, I'm over 50. But I don't think I'm too mellow. I'm still angry at a lot of things.

It's all about creation and surprise. It just needs to be appreciated and watered like flowers. You have to water flowers. These peaks will come again.

I know I was a generic dysfunctional child, but I think a lot of people are.

The scarcity of the music not only makes the music itself enjoyable but it also gives the collector a strange sense of superiority.

Often-times it's madness, not genius that moves the world forward. Who else but the mad would reach so far, stretching for the impossible and, in so doing, prove the impossible possible!

Nothing brings people together more, than mutual hatred.

Jazz music is as American as it gets, and so is the U.S. Postal Service. A Miles Davis stamp is a perfect marriage of two great American institutions.

You are the untold story. You are the impassioned truth wanting to scream its existence, to be forever trapped by a strong hand clapped firmly over the mouth of my soul.

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress...so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair.

I'll know when I find the ultimate sound.

I simply cannot understand how any parent could kill themselves.

I always took quite seriously the things that Chuck D. of Public Enemy had to say. He's always been someone I've learned quite a bit from and someone I pay a great deal of attention to.

Life is death in slow motion.

We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost.

There’s got to be someone for me. It’s not too much to ask. Just someone to be with. Someone to love. Someone to give everything to. Someone.

I can only write about personal stuff, about my point of view.

What goes best with a cup of coffee? Another cup.

The average is the borderline that keeps mere men in their place. Those who step over the line are heroes by the very act. Go.

The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music. That was his reason for being alive. Nothing else mattered except music, really.

Love heals scars love left

In many ways, America is on the receiving end of a pendulum that has been swung with great force, and for a long time, outward into the world. The impact is a wake-up call on every level.

If I had to perform in a comedy club I would bomb; I would be trying too hard.

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.

I'd rather work on my radio show, which no one hears but I put about eight hours of programming and writing into it for those 30 people who do tune in.

Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated.

I think about the meaning of pain. Pain is personal. It really belongs to the one feeling it. Probably the only thing that is your own. I like mine.

People are best on records and books because you can turn them off or put them back on the shelf.

Your job is to take notes, my job is to make that impossible.

Respect is not a one way street

I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts.

A great way to learn about your country is to leave it.