Ma Rainey Quotes

• They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing cause that's a way of understanding life.

  Ma Rainey

  Feel Better, Talking, Understanding

  26 Copy quote

• If you don't like my ocean don't fish in my sea
  Stay out of my valley and let my mountain be.

  Ma Rainey

  Ocean, Sea, Mountain

  32 Copy quote

• I can't tell my future, so I'm going to tell my past.

  Ma Rainey

  Music, Past, My Future

  26 Copy quote

• This be an empty world without the blues.

  Ma Rainey

  World, Empty

  22 Copy quote

• My audience wants to see me beautifully gowned, and I have spared no expense or pains . . . For I feel that the best is none too good for the public that pays to hear a singer.

  Ma Rainey

  Pain, Want, Singers

  9 Copy quote

• A tune's like a staircase - walk up on it.

  Ma Rainey

  Music, Tunes, Staircases

  13 Copy quote

• [Advice to Bessie Smith:] Let your soul do the singin'.

  Ma Rainey

  Music, Advice, Soul

  14 Copy quote

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