Top 95 Quotes About Gershwin
#1. Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?
Maurice Ravel
#2. Like the pugilist," Gershwin said, "the songwriter must always keep in training.
Mason Currey
#3. In his musicals with Garland, Rooney was the sparkplug for prodigious entrepreneurship - that era's predecessor of the garage band, but with Gershwin tunes and an all-star cast.
Richard Corliss
#4. I was proud to work with the great Gershwin, and I would have done it for nothing, which I did.
Howard Dietz
#5. Musically Bob [Dylan] is a primitive. He's not a Gershwin, or somebody that uses eloquent music terms.
Al Kooper
#6. Leonard Bernstein was probably the most significant formative influence on me - he was such an encompassing musician. I spent my teenage years absorbing him, and my other interests stemmed off of that. Bernstein led me to Sondheim and to Gershwin, and Sondheim led me to listening to Joni Mitchell.
Jason Robert Brown
#7. Not to dismiss Gershwin, but Gershwin is the chip; Ellington was the block.
Joni Mitchell
#8. George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to.
John O'Hara
#9. As a composer, Dylan now fits comfortably alongside George Gershwin or Irving Berlin, though he grumpily refuses to wear any man's collar.
Douglas Brinkley
#10. I did my New York debut at 21. It was 'On the Town' at the George Gershwin Theatre. New York is my artistic home.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
#11. America, the Idea of: We yearned for its beer and jazz, its smoke-filled nightclubs, its Edward Hopper bars, the melancholy of rainy Manhattan Gershwin nights ... the America we yearned for has gone. Did it ever exist?
Michael Bywater
#12. Gershwin's tragedy was not that he failed to cross the tracks, but rather that he did, and once there in his new habitat, was deprived of the chance to plunge his roots firmly into the new soil.
George Gershwin
#13. The Gershwin legacy is extraordinary because George Gershwin died in 1937, but his music is as fresh and vital today as when he originally created it.
Michael Feinstein
#14. I never liked hearing anyone say I was the new George Gershwin, because I knew I could have never even carried that man's music case. If George Gershwin hadn't died when he was thirty-nine years old, there is no knowing how much more great music he would have written.
Burt Bacharach
#15. I grew up with singers. My father's mother sang opera. My dad was a big band singer. I can't remember a time there wasn't music in the house, so I grew up listening to great songwriters - George Gershwin, Cole Porter - and my grandma was playing opera for me before I was 3.
J. D. Souther
#16. As far as songwriters, I've always been a fan of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin; those guys mean a lot to me.
Mel Brooks
#18. I'm a fan of Jerome Kern and Gershwin. That's my kind of music.
Shirley Jones
#19. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion ... no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. Yes. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.
Woody Allen
#20. Ira Gershwin, shame on him. I mean, some of the writing.
Joni Mitchell
#21. For me, when you are talking about perfect songs, you're talking about Gershwin, 'Someone To Watch Over Me.' Or Larry Hart and Richard Rodgers. Or some of the great Cole Porter songs, whether it's 'Night and Day' or some of the comedy songs. Or Irving Berlin, of course.
Maury Yeston
#22. To George Gershwin, on refusinghim as a pupil: You would only lose the spontaneous quality of your melody, and end by writing bad Ravel.
Maurice Ravel
#23. You might lose your spontaneity and, instead of composing first-rate Gershwin, end up with second rate Ravel.
Maurice Ravel
#24. For me, Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' defines New York. Both New York and Manhattan Island should be in black in white! I always hear the soundtrack of Gershwin in my head every time I go over the Queensboro Bridge, or come in from JFK because of it!
Brian Cox
#25. Gershwin inspired me very much. The concept of 'That Lucky Old Sun' was inspired by 'Rhapsody in Blue' - not influenced, but inspired.
Brian Wilson
#26. My first role was in the George Gershwin musical 'Crazy for You' at the Orlando Repertory Theatre when I was 11 - I grew up in Florida - and I wasn't old enough to be in it, but they let me anyway. I was just this little shrimp in a leotard.
Aubrey Peeples
#27. As a New Yorker you can't help but be proud of the fact that so much music and culture started here. Punk rock, jazz, hip-hop and house music started here, George Gershwin debuted 'Rhapsody in Blue' here; the Velvet Underground are from New York.
Moby
#28. He's a world-famous name to people who care about his music, but there are many people who have never heard of George Gershwin and those numbers increase.
Michael Feinstein
#29. My father was always playing the piano. He played all kinds of music - Gershwin, all kinds of stuff.
Kate Bush
#30. From folk to tribal to Cab Calloway, Cole Porter, Gershwin to the Rolling Stones, whose first record was all covers, to country-western, bebop, blues, and even the referencing in classic hip hop to cliched love ballads of the '80s or whatever - that is kinda gone, and that's just terrifying to me.
Cat Power
#31. I was lucky enough to have the songs in my first show written by George and Ira Gershwin. Then Cole Porter wrote five shows for me.
Ethel Merman
#32. I totally related to Cole Porter's magnetic pull to any piano that was in the room, which he was famous for doing, as was Gershwin. You couldn't drag them away from a piano.
Kevin Kline
#33. I was always drawn to Broadway musicals, and obviously composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter were writing music that I found wildly impressive.
Marvin Hamlisch
#35. For suddenly, I saw you there And through foggy London town The sun was shining everywhere ...
George Gershwin
#36. What the hell do you want to work for somebody else for? Work for yourself!
George Gershwin
#37. There's a somebody I'm longing to see, I hope that he, turns out to be, someone to watch over me.
Ira Gershwin
#38. Jazz I regard as an American folk music; not the only one, but a very powerful one which is probably in the blood and feeling of the American people more than any other style of folk music.
George Gershwin
#39. In Jazz, like in America, the group works together toward a common cause with lots of room left for each individual to shine.
Richie Gerber
#40. A song without music is a lot like H2 without the O.
Ira Gershwin
#41. Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come.
George Gershwin
#45. Holding hands at midnight 'Neath a starry sky ... Nice work if you can get it And you can get it
if you try.
Ira Gershwin
#46. It sounds simple, of course, but personally I can think of no more mentally arduous task than making music.
George Gershwin
#48. When jazz is played in another nation, it is called American. When it is played in another country, it sounds false. Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.
George Gershwin
#49. Originality is the only thing that counts. But the originator uses material and ideas that occur round him and pass through him. And out of his experience comes the original creation.
George Gershwin
#50. I'm bidin' my time,
'Cause that's the kinda guy I'm.
Ira Gershwin
#52. Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want?
George Gershwin
#53. One can be very happy without demanding that others agree with them.
Ira Gershwin
#54. The European boys have small ideas but they sure know how to dress 'em up.
George Gershwin
#55. The extraordinary thing about my mother, she's so modest about me.
George Gershwin
#57. True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.
George Gershwin
#58. The future of this nation, with the present generation, You must admit is nothing but a joke
Ira Gershwin
#59. And now a brief public service announcement. Alligators: can they kill your children? Yes.
Cecil Baldwin
#60. Old age adds to the respect due to virtue, but it takes nothing from the contempt inspired by vice; it whitens only the hair.
Ira Gershwin
#61. It's nice to have a station pet. Wish it wasn't trapped in a hovering prison in the men's bathroom, but listen: no pet is perfect. It becomes perfect when you learn to accept it for what it is.
Cecil Baldwin
#63. Music sets up certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized.
George Gershwin
#64. All great composers of the past spent most of their time studying. Feeling alone won't do the job. A man also needs technique.
George Gershwin
#66. I didn't even start playing the piano until I was about 13 or 14. I guess I must have had a little talent or whatever-you-call-it, but I practised regularly, and that's what counts.
George Gershwin
#67. If you'll promise not to cry, Baby,
I will kiss you by-and-by - Maybe!
Though you're six feet three,
You will always be
Nothing but a Baby, dear, to me.
Ira Gershwin
#69. A skyscraper is at the same time a triumph of the machine and a tremendous emotional experience, almost breath-taking. Not merely its height but its mass and proportions are the result of an emotion, as well as of calculation.
George Gershwin
#70. Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.
George Gershwin
#72. They all laughed at Christopher Columbus
When he said the world was round.
Ira Gershwin
#73. I want to say at once that I frankly believe that Irving Berlin is the greatest songwriter that has ever lived ... His songs are exquisite cameos of perfection, and each one of them is as beautiful as its neighbor. Irving Berlin remains, I think, America's Schubert.
George Gershwin
#74. When I'm in my normal mood, music drips from my fingers.
George Gershwin
#76. S wonderful! 'S marvelous!
That you should care for me!
Ira Gershwin
#77. Summer time an' the livin' is easy, Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high. Oh, yo' daddy's rich, and yo' ma' is good-lookin', So hush, little baby, don' yo' cry.
Ira Gershwin
#78. I'd like to add her initial to my monogram...
Ira Gershwin
#79. Look at the piano. You'll notice that there are white notes and black notes. Figure out the difference between them and you'll be able to make whatever kind of music you want.
George Gershwin
#80. Life is a lot like jazz - it's best when you improvise.
George Gershwin
#81. All these tales of people sitting down and composing symphonies just as though they were writing a letter are very much exaggerated; at least, it isn't that way in my work.
George Gershwin
#82. Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.
George Gershwin
#83. Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work.
George Gershwin
#84. In time the Rockies may crumble,
Gibraltar may tumble.
Ira Gershwin
#86. It took me three weeks to write the 'Rhapsody in Blue.' I had always wanted to write something blue and Paul Whiteman inspired.
George Gershwin
#87. Upper berth, lower berth, that's the difference between talent and genius.
George Gershwin
#88. Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state.
Ira Gershwin
#89. The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself ... Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
George Gershwin
#91. The way you wear your hat,
The way you sip your tea,
The mem'ry of all that
No, no! They can't take that away from me!
Ira Gershwin
#92. Remember: if you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.
Cecil Baldwin
#93. Summertime
And the livin' is easy,
Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high.
Ira Gershwin
#94. I got rhythm, I got music, I got my man- Who could ask for anything more?
Ira Gershwin
#95. Porgy is ... an interesting example of what can be done by talent in spite of a bad setup. With a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen, a man who should never have attempted it has written a work that has a considerable power.
George Gershwin
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