Like a layer on a pearl, you can't specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but at the end of the day, you know you have a pearl.

Quote by Ken Burns

Topics: Ken Burns Quotes

History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence...

History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence...

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution...

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution...

When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has...

When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has...

In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more...

In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more...

You need, as a historian, essential triangulation from your subject and the only way you...

You need, as a historian, essential triangulation from your subject and the only way you...

You don't work on something for six years and be blind to the myriad of...

You don't work on something for six years and be blind to the myriad of...

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of...

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of...

One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always...

One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always...

I read cover to cover every jazz publication that I could and in the New...

I read cover to cover every jazz publication that I could and in the New...

I can understand why some of these drummers and bass players become cult figures with...

I can understand why some of these drummers and bass players become cult figures with...

A jazz beat is a dynamic changing rhythm.

A jazz beat is a dynamic changing rhythm.

Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to...

Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to...

When you are editing, the final master is Aristotle and his poetics. You might have...

When you are editing, the final master is Aristotle and his poetics. You might have...

I think the problem with a lot of the fusion music is that it's extremely...

I think the problem with a lot of the fusion music is that it's extremely...

Wynton told us that Miles sold out, just wanted to make more money, just wanted...

Wynton told us that Miles sold out, just wanted to make more money, just wanted...

I subscribe to William Faulkner's' view that history is not just about what we were...

I subscribe to William Faulkner's' view that history is not just about what we were...

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what...

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what...

Our choices in life are made according to our sense of our own worth.

Our choices in life are made according to our sense of our own worth.

There is a sacred realm of privacy for every man and woman where he makes...

There is a sacred realm of privacy for every man and woman where he makes...

The words we say are not what will stand in the minds of others. It's...

The words we say are not what will stand in the minds of others. It's...