16 W. C. Handy Quotes

W. C. Handy quotes

1. I think America concedes that (true American music) has sprung from the negro. When we take these things that come from the art of the Negro and from the heart of the man farthest down.

2. Life is like a trumpet. If you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out.

3. If my serenade of song and story should serve as a pillow for some composer's head, as yet perhaps unborn, to dream and build on our fond melodies in his tomorrow, I have not labored in vain.

4. You'll never miss the water 'til the well runs dry.

1. My big ears indicated a talent for music. This thrilled me.

2. With a guitar I would be able to express the things I felt in sounds.

3. Nature was my kindergarten.

4. Life is like a trumpet - if you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out of it.

5. I knew the whistle of each of the river boats on the Tennessee.

6. In the South of long ago whenever a new man appeared for work in any of the laborers gangs, he would be asked if he could sing. If he could he got the job. The singing of these working men set the rhythm for the work.

7. You've got to appreciate the things that come from the art of the Negro and from the heart of the man farthest down.

8. Whenever I heard the song of a bird and the answering call of its mate, I could visualize the notes in scale, all built up within my consciousness as a natural symphony.

9. The name of my ailment was longing, and it was not cured till I finally went to the department store and counted out the money in small coins before the dismayed clerk. When I came to the house, I held up the instrument before the eyes of the astonished household.

10. I hate to see the evening sun go down.

11. Where the Tennessee River, like a silver snake, winds her way through the clay hills of Alabama, sits high on these hills, my home town, Florence.

12. Saving was slow and painful.