When I die, they'll bury the blues with me. But the blues will never die.
John Lee HookerRead
They wasn't gonna give you nothin'. I didn't care as long as they let me play my music. Cash on the spot... You cheat me and I'm gonna get me some money, too.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea of valuing personal expression over material gain and acknowledging the tough realities of life.
John Lee Hooker's quote reflects the struggles faced as an artist and the determination to pursue one's passion despite the obstacles. It highlights the importance of artistic freedom and the willingness to stand up for oneself in the face of unfairness, suggesting that one should always prioritize what they love—like music—over the challenges posed by others.
In practice
In a speech at an artist's rally to inspire creativity.
When I die, they'll bury the blues with me. But the blues will never die.
The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.
Like you and your woman ain't gettin' along and you're in love. You can't sleep at nights. Your mind is on her - on whatever. You know, that's the blues. You can't hug that money at night. You can't kiss it.
I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks.
You can go to Europe, and there's no turnin' back - any parts of Europe. Wherever you are, there is no stop and go for the blues. The blues go but it don't stop.
I don't think about time. You're here when you're here. I think about today, staying in tune.
People probably have different philosophies about this, but I think that when you're first shaping the play and trying to find a character, the initial actors that develop it end up imprinting on it - you hear their voices; you hear their rhythms. You can't help but to begin to write toward them during the rehearsal process.
Of course the illusion of art is to make one believe that great literature is very close to life, but exactly the opposite is true. Life is amorphous, literature is formal.
It's always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.
I can come up with 30 T-shirt designs in a day, but it's just about where to slot each of them. That's streetwear to me. It's about knowing where to buy things, not this mass thing you can get anywhere.
Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.
The daily act of writing remains as demanding and maddening as it was before, and the pleasure you get from writing - rare but profound - remains at the true heart of the enterprise. On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching.
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