Mary Lou Williams Quotes

It was a very hard life. As I got older, the family was depending very much on me. My two older brothers got married, so they had their own families depending on them. I had seven people relying on me, so I worked in a grocery store.

In 1974 I was trying to get my first little band together. That year marked kind of a traumatic point in my life, but I had a lot of support from friends and family and a lot of good things ended up coming out of it.

The Misfits pretty much funds the Misfits. It used to cost me money to be in the band. I think we got paid the last gig we ever did. After that, we had to work to support our families.

My life got turned upside down when I found out I had cancer.

Sickle cell was my life before hip-hop. I ain't really have no life - that was it.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, like so many other people, my life changed forever.

I got a family to take care of and kids to feed. That's my motivation, this is my job.

I left Northwestern University after a year and was in New York playing piano in a little bar on 58th Street, and I didn't know whether to go back.

I love Hootie & the Blowfish and what we do, but that's not my main focus anymore.

It's important to me that I don't spend too much time away from the family. I try to pick jobs that will keep me as close to home as possible or, if I have to go far away, for as little time as possible.

My mother graduated from high school at 15 and went to work to support the family because the eldest son went to college.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

My wife goes to Birmingham five times a week. My mom lives in Birmingham now after moving from Myrtle Beach. It's not just the job. A lot of people don't get that. My life is here.

Me and my mom made a deal that if something would happen to help me get my start in music, I could get out of college.

I always wanted to be in bands.

That would really be my fantasy - maybe just do three shows a year and each year in a different city, just singing for the people who really want to see it, and then just write for other people. I do love to sing, but I'm just as happy singing in the bathtub, you know?

I have grandchildren who are going to need every cent I make.

In 1980, we just ran out of steam. After about 15 years, Don Henley and Glenn Frey came to me and said, 'We have been thinking of starting the Eagles back up again, and we can't do it without you, and we can't do it unless you're sober.' I was just about homeless.

In 2003, I had testicular cancer, and I didn't tell anyone about it - maybe five people. I had a fairly significant surgery. I was weak, slumped over. I told people at work I'd been in an accident.

I auditioned for 'The Voice' because I really wanted to try and figure out a way to get myself out there. I really couldn't imagine doing anything else - music was the only thing that I really clung to.

When my parents separated, I became the breadwinner of the family.

I played my first show when I was 17, and that was a big moment. I realized it was something I could keep doing.

I've always played that role in my family: the breadwinner.

I'd eat, eat, eat, not exercise, go to sleep, eat and eat. I looked up in the mirror and said I had to make a change if I was going to continue to live.

When cancer affects somebody in the family, the whole family is affected.