Mary Lou Williams Quotes

• I wonder what an agent would do if he had to travel with the band he's booking.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Music, Band, Agents

  47 Copy quote

• Anything you are shows up in your music - jazz is whatever you are, playing yourself, being yourself, letting your thoughts come through.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Being Yourself, Playing Yourself, Musical

  9 Copy quote

• It's not what you play, it's how you play it.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Play

  12 Copy quote

• Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Music, Heart, People

  8 Copy quote

• If you work on your talent, the plans will fall in automatically.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Fall, Talent, Plans

  7 Copy quote

• One way and another I was having a ball - playing gigs, jamming and listening to fine musicians. Then came a crisis at home. My stepfather fell sick, and it meant I had to support the family.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Home, Sick, Support

  54 Copy quote

• During the years I was with Andy Kirk we starved almost. I remember not eating for practically a month several times. But we were very, very happy because the music was so interesting, and you forgot to eat, anyway.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Struggle, Years, Interesting

  8 Copy quote

• Offers for me to play dances, society parties, even churches, were now coming in regularly. For most dates I was paid the sum of one dollar per hour, and they always tipped me at the end of the night.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Party, Night, Play

  4 Copy quote

• I have been tied up with music for about as long as I can remember. By the time I was four I was picking out little tunes my mother played on the reed organ in the living-room.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Music, Mother, Long

  5 Copy quote

• Quite a few musicians came to our house. And my ma took me to hear many more, hoping to encourage in me a love of music. But she wouldnt consent to my having music lessons, for she feared I might end up as she had done - unable to play except from paper.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Love, Play, House

  10 Copy quote

• Within a few hours I had them off, was about ready to play the shows. That night I opened, and during the week Harris was over to the house to talk my mother into letting me leave home.

  Mary Lou Williams

  Mother, Home, Night

  5 Copy quote

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin