Ragtime Quotes

“Like hot food
I love you
like warm
bread & cold
cuts, butter
sammiches
or, days later, after
Thanksgiving
when I want
whatever's left”
― Kevin Young

“American musicians, instead of investigating ragtime, attempt to ignore it, or dismiss it with a contemptuous word. But that has always been the course of scholasticism in every branch of art. Whatever new thing the 'people' like is poohpoohed; whatever is 'popular' is spoken of as not worth the while. The fact is, nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best that he gives to the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic of his genius.”
― James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man

“As the crew began lighting up their cigars and pipes, they could hear the ragtime music of Scott Joplin being performed by the colored composer himself enlivening the atmosphere with a jubilant feeling of gaiety, hope, and promise.”
― Rich DiSilvio, A Blazing Gilded Age