Mary Lou Williams Quotes

I've had, what, two years? Probably five good years. Before that I had twenty years of uncertainty and suffering and ego destruction and poverty. All those things. That'll always outweigh the good times.

A guy I interviewed for Hard Times says, "What do I remember about the Great Depression? That I was hungry, that's all." Elemental things.

My entire life is dedicated to music, and at my age, that makes a lot of years! But all the work and dedication is only that I'm able to forget myself and let the music do the 'talking.'

We're living in hard times.

I was a happy man, never working. Sometimes I saw days with no money to eat. It was not so difficult.

I wasn't born with a golden spoon in my mouth. It was a really tough life.

For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.

I did just about anything to pay the rent for a while.

Going through economic hard times is something I know firsthand.

I enjoy the music I make because I have to - if I didn't, I wouldn't want to make it, and I wouldn't want it to be heard by other people.

In our early days, being recognized on any list of great companies was hard to imagine. There were times when we sold the office furniture to make payroll.

We just like making the music that we make. It makes us super, super happy.

Times were so hard it was difficult to feed and lodge humans, much less animals.

Look, when do the really interesting things happen? Not when you've brushed your teeth and put on your pyjamas and are cozy in bed. They happen when you are cold and uncomfortable and hungry and don't have a roof over your head for the night.

I was born and raised during Depression Years when we were on County relief and we all went out and we hustled. we worked. I worked in a restaurant, I washed dishes.

Needy knife-grinder! whither are ye going? Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order; Bleak blows the blast-your hat has got a hole in it. So have your breeches.

I walked the streets of New York for two years begging for a job, and I couldn't get one.

Each year it grows harder to make ends meet - the ends I refer to are hands and feet.

I got tired and embarrassed by the constant poverty of those years. I told Doug [ Brinkley] this is really going to be a horrible downer of a book [The Proud Highway] if all it's going to be is about being broke. I didn't like being reminded of desperation at all times.

You never know how you'll turn out till you've been down to half a dollar and no prospects.

After every tour, I think about hanging up the touring hat, and after a while of not working, I'm ready to play. I think I enjoy playing music more than I enjoy not playing music.

We laughed a lot. That's one thing we forgot about for a few years - laughing. When we went through all the lawsuits, it looked as if everything was bleak, but when I think back to before that, I remember we used to laugh all the time.

There was no sacrifice in acting for me, even when I was starving in New York. I went three days without eating. Charlie Bronson and I sold blood for $5 so that we could eat.

The worst years of my life were the first two years I was doing standup. You're learning how to do, and you're going on stage in front of two drunks and people aren't laughing and you're broke. That's a really hard time in your life.

You don't worry about happiness and fulfilment when you're starving.