Ma Rainey Quotes

#1. I think I was probably an early teenager when I discovered Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and a bunch of people that are on a long list of artists. They were important to me, especially as an early adolescent.

Madeleine Peyroux

#2. The first big stars, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, you know, these were gigantic stars. I even wonder sometimes whether all music actually comes from women, whether the first glimmering of music is a mother soothing a baby.

Hugh Laurie

#3. Faith is not the opposite of reason. Faith rests squarely upon reason, but with the added component of revelation.

Francis Collins

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

Ma Rainey

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

Ma Rainey

#6. 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

#7. This be an empty world without the blues.

Ma Rainey

#8. 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

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

Ma Rainey

#10. Laughter is the only thing that'll cut trouble down to a size where you can talk to it.

Dan Jenkins

#11. 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

#12. I am only a literary lizard basking the day away beneath the great sun of Beauty. That's all.

Julian Barnes

#13. What we determine we often break. Purpose is but the slave to memory.

William Shakespeare

#14. He stepped aside, allowing me back into the hallway. As we headed to another elevator, he was glued to my hip. As close as you're riding me, man, I feel like I need to take you out to dinner or something. At least I should get your name.

Jennifer L. Armentrout

#15. White folks hear the blues come out, but they don't know how it got there.

Ma Rainey

#16. I can easily hold two opposing beliefs at the same time without any problem, which I find - well, mind-expanding, really.

Rabih Alameddine