“I haven’t got a great jazz band and I don’t want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat’s among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking real jazz . . . It’s all in what you define as ‘real jazz.’ It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. Our band stresses harmony.”

(Glenn Miller, trombonista, compositore e direttore d'orchestra; Clarinda, 1º marzo 1904 – Canale della Manica, 15 dicembre 1944)

 

"If you want to be a singer, you've got to concentrate on it twenty-four hours a day. You can't be a well driller, too. You've got to concentrate on the business of entertaining and writing songs. Always think different from the next person. Don't ever do a song as you heard somebody else do it."

(Otis Redding, nome completo Otis Ray Redding Jr., cantante; Dawson, 9 settembre 1941 – Madison, 10 dicembre 1967)

 

Roberto Mariano (Palermo, 1969 – Weiach, 14 novembre 1990) è stato un attore italiano, famoso per aver interpretato la parte di Antonio nei due film di successo del regista Marco Risi, Mery per sempre e Ragazzi fuori.  Morì in in incidente aereo mentre si recava in Svizzera per cercare lavoro.

 

"Let me be clear--I'm strongly opposed to censorship of any kind in our society or anywhere else in the world. I've had in my experience two encounters with this sort of censorship. My song "Rocky Mountain High" was banned from many radio stations as a drug-related song. This was obviously done by people who have never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains and also never experienced the elation, the celebration of life or the joy in living that one feels when he observes something as wondrous as the Perseid meteor shower, on a moonless, cloudless night when there are so many stars that you have a shadow from the starlight. And you're out camping with your friends, your best friends, and introducing them to one of nature's most spectacular light shows for the very first time. Obviously a clear case of misinterpretation."

(John Denver, pseudonimo di Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., cantautore di genere folk-rock; Roswell, 31 dicembre 1943 – Monterey, 12 ottobre 1997)

"For a long time, you learn to play as many notes as you can find. And then you spend the rest of your life trying to figure out which ones you can leave out."

(Stephen Ray Vaughan, detto Stevie, chitarrista, cantante e compositore; Dallas, 3 ottobre 1954 – East Troy, 27 agosto 1990)

 

"Being female, you're raised to be a good, sweet girl and not flip out. So I had to give myself permission to be mean and evil. It's tough. But I've always been drawn to the darker side of things."

(Aaliyah Dana Haughton, nota semplicemente come Aaliyah, cantante, ballerina, attrice e modella; New York, 16 gennaio 1979 – Marsh Harbour, 25 agosto 2001)

 

Grit Haid, attrice e ballerina che iniziò la carriera nel 1915 ed ebbe molto successo in Austria negli anni '20. Morì in un incidente aereo mentre si stava trasferendo in Francia per lavoro (Vienna, 14 marzo 1900 – Schwarzwald, 13 agosto 1938)

 

William Joseph Lara, conosciuto come Joe Lara, modello, attore, musicista (San Diego, 2 ottobre 1962 – Smyrna, 29 maggio 2021)

 

"J'ai sué, j'ai saigné, j'ai pris des coups dans des pays òu les boxeuers sont les plus fort."

 (Alexis Vastine, pugile; Pont-Audemer, 17 novembre 1986 – Villa Castelli, 9 marzo 2015)

 

"People just don't understand how obsessed I am with winning."

 (Kobe Bean Bryant, cestista; Filadelfia, 23 agosto 1978 – Calabasas, 26 gennaio 2020)

"La terre nous en apprend plus sur nous que tous les livres. Parce qu'elle nous résiste. L'homme se découvre quand il se mesure avec l'obstacle." Da Terre des hommes, 1939.

(Antoine Jean Baptiste Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry, meglio conosciuto come Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, aviatore e scrittore; Lione, 29 giugno 1900 – mar Mediterraneo, presso l'Île de Riou, 31 luglio 1944)

"The time to worry is three months before a flight. Decide then whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying. To worry is to add another hazard. It retards reactions, makes one unfit. . . . Hamlet would have been a bad aviator. He worried too much."

 (Amelia Mary Earhart, aviatrice; Atchison, 24 luglio 1897 – Oceano Pacifico, 2 luglio 1937)

"I recorded a song called, I Fall to Pieces, and I was in a car wreck. Now I'm worried because I have a brand-new record, and it's called Crazy!"

(Patsy Cline, nata Virginia Patterson Hensley, cantante e compositrice; Winchester, 8 settembre 1932 – Camden, 5 marzo 1963)

 

"Why waltz with a guy for 10 rounds if you can knock him out in one?"

(Rocky Marciano, pseudonimo di Rocco Francis Marchegiano, imbattuto campione del mondo di pesi massimi; Brockton, 1º settembre 1923 – Newton, 31 agosto 1969)

Maryse Hilsz (Levallois-Perret, 7 marzo 1901 – Bourg-en-Bresse, 30 gennaio 1946),  donna di gran carattere e avventurosa aviatrice che battè molti record e morì in un incidente aereo.

"I can't imagine a duller fate than being the best-dressed woman in reality. When I want to do something, I don't pause to contemplate whether I'm exquisitely gowned. I want to live, not pose!"
(Carole Lombard, vero nome Alice Jane Peters; Fort Wayne, 6 ottobre 1908 – Table Rock Mountain, 16 gennaio 1942)