Herbie Hancock's Reading List

"Wayne Shorter is a saxophonist, a wonderful composer, a very bright and extremely creative person, and also my best friend. But I didn’t meet him until about 1963, when I was 23 and he was maybe 29. When I read his biography, I got a chance to learn more about his childhood. He and his brother Alan, also a musician, had a kind of rebelliousness when they were young, choosing not to follow the crowd. They showed a great deal of courage early on, even as kids."

"I’ve had the good fortune to meet President Obama. I believe he’s a compassionate man, and my impression of him is compatible with how he describes the flow of his life from his early childhood."

"I’ve been a practicing Buddhist for 41 years now — I follow a school called Nichiren Buddhism, founded by a Japanese monk in the 13th century. I wrote the foreword to this book, a guide to achieving enlightenment. It’s kind of an easy read for non-Buddhists, to provide an understanding of Nichiren principles."

"I’m interested in cosmology, technology, and science. These books, Hawking’s explanation of the formation of the universe and a series of his lectures at the University of Cambridge, are difficult to get through but well worth it."

"Quincy Jones is also a dear friend of mine, and has been for 50 years, yet I really enjoyed reading about his life and career in his 2002 autobiography. It was Quincy, back in the ’90s, who told me, ‘Herbie, you better start writing your book.’ I hadn’t thought of it, but over the years, I started to think he was right. He made suggestions on how to do it, and he would remind me periodically, ‘Start writing that book!'"