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.

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

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

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…