Miles Davis

Prince is from the school of James Brown, and I love James Brown because of all the great rhythms he plays.

You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line... We're just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.

Prince got some Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix and Sly in him, also, even Little Richard. He's a mixture of all those guys and Duke Ellington.

He comes in on the beat and plays on top of the beat. I think when Prince makes love, he hears drums instead of Ravel.

The music I was really listening to in 1968 was James Brown, the great guitar player Jimi Hendrix, and a new group... Sly and the Family Stone, led by Sly Stewart from San Francisco.

When I'm playing, I'm never through. It's unfinished. I like to find a place to leave for someone else to finish it. That's where the high comes in.

When you do anything too long, you either wear it out or lose interest.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

Prince might be bringing that low sound back, because he has that double bass.

You'd be surprised. Drummers ape each other. The way every rock n' roll record sounds like something else but not all together. Everything other drummers play, if you're playing drums, they all hear.

It was Jimi Hendrix that I first got into when Betty Mabry turned me on to him.

It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it.

Jimi Hendrix came from the blues, like me. We understood each other right away because of that. He was a great blues guitarist.

A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I'm still doing it.

I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.

If you understood everything I say, you'd be me!

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

Space music'd be really something... but they don't have no gravity up there. You couldn't have no downbeat!

I know what I've done for music, but don't call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.