Mary Lou Williams Quotes

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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