William Christopher Handy Quotes

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

Setting my mind on a musical instrument was like falling in love. All the world seemed bright and changed.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Saving was slow and painful.

You can never tell what's in a woman's mind, And if she's from Harlem, there's no use o' tryin

Nature was my kindergarten.

Sometimes I feel like nothin,' somethin' throwed away, Somethin' throwed away. And then I get my guitar, play the blues all day.

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

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

I think America concedes that true American music has sprung from the Negro.

The blues - the sound of a sinner on revival day.

I hate to see the evening sun go down.

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.