Paul Desmond
“I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.”
“I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player, as well as a special award in 1961 for quietness.”
“I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.”
“I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.”
“Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can’t be taught.”
“Sometimes they go around with guys who are scuffling — for a while. But usually they end up marrying some cat with a factory. This is the way the world ends, not with a whim but a banker.”
“We’re working as if it were going out of style—which of course it is.”
“Our basic audience begins with creaking elderly types of twenty-three and above.”
“I discovered early in life that if you take gym first period, you can go into the wrestling room and sit in the corner and sleep.”
