Fiddle Quotes - Page 2

• A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!

  Sheldon Harnick

  Crazy, Home, Simple

  "Fictional character: Tevye". "Fiddler on the Roof", www.imdb.com. 1971.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I've known Shawn for several years. And he's just an amazing talent. He's a great writer, a marvelous, marvelous guitar player, and plays really good fiddle.

  Guy Clark

  Player, Guitar, Years

  8 Copy quote

• I got me a fine wife and I got me old fiddle, when the suns coming up I got cakes on the griddle. And life ain't nothing, but a funny, funny riddle.

  John Denver

  Philosophy, Cake, Wife

  12 Copy quote

• When the fiddle had stopped singing Laura called out softly, "What are days of auld lang syne, Pa?" "They are the days of a long time ago, Laura," Pa said. "Go to sleep, now." But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa's fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods,… She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

  Laura Ingalls Wilder

  Lonely, Sleep, Wind

  Laura Ingalls Wilder (2003). “Little House in the Big Woods”, HarperCollins

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• It needs more skill than I can tell
  To play the second fiddle well.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Play, Skills, Needs

  Spurgeon, Charles H. (2015). “The Salt Cellars”, p.300, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If intelligence were a television set, it would be an early black-and-white model with poor reception, so that much of the picture was gray and the figures on the screen were snowy and indistinct. You could fiddle with the knobs all you wanted, but unless you were careful, what you would see often depended more on what you expected or hoped to see than on what was really there.

  Madeleine Albright

  Black And White, Expectations, Intelligence

  48 Copy quote

• Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.

  Samuel Johnson

  Should Have, Done, Should

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.162

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.

  William Cowper

  Giving, Laughing, May

  William Cowper (1866). “The Poetical Works of William Cowper”, p.26

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• For 'Singin' in the Rain,' I bought most of the costumes - the 'Fit as a Fiddle' costumes and the 'Make Them Laugh' Donald O'Connor outfits and the 'Good Morning, Good Morning' clothes we danced in.

  Debbie Reynolds

  Morning, Rain, Clothes

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A Fiddle for Angus is a charming tale. This is a very fine book.

  Alistair MacLeod

  Book, Charming, Fine

  4 Copy quote

• Perhaps you see, therefore, why I think taste must come before nutrition? Our infatuation for the quasi-scientific has left us easy marks for con men and tin fiddle manufacturers.

  Robert Farrar Capon

  Men, Thinking, Taste

  4 Copy quote

• I'd rather fiddle with my phone for precious seconds than neglect an apostrophe; I'd rather insert a word laboriously keyed out than resort to predictive texting for a - acceptable to some - synonym.

  Will Self

  Phones, Texting, Neglect

  "The joy of text" by Will Self and Lynne Truss, www.theguardian.com. July 4, 2008.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the house of a Fidler, all fiddle.
  [In the house of the fiddler all fiddle.]

  George Herbert

  House, Fiddlers

  4 Copy quote

• My mother wanted me to learn how to read music. She'd given fiddles to my two older brothers, but they'd rebelled. I came along and my father said, "Oh, let Peter enjoy himself." What she did was leave musical instruments all around the house. Whistles, marimbas, squeeze boxes, a piano and organ. By age six or seven, I could bang out a simple tune on almost anything. I developed a good ear, so I didn't learn to read music until I taught myself at age eighteen, 'cause I was hearing so many good songs I couldn't possibly remember them all.

  Pete Seeger

  Mother, Song, Brother

  Source: www.wholeearth.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• My father urged Alan [Lomax] not to repeat the mistakes of the European folklorists who, a century ago, had collected these peasant songs and then arranged them for part choir and accompanied them on piano, and then told the young people of their country, "Don't change a note, this is our sacred heritage." Father said, whether it's a fiddle tune or a gospel song, learn it right off the record from the people who grew up with it. Don't just learn it from a piece of paper.

  Pete Seeger

  Country, Song, Father

  Source: www.wholeearth.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• You fiddle lucker!' she cried.

  Scott Westerfeld

  Cried

  Scott Westerfeld (2005). “So Yesterday”, p.111, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When I really want to be soothed and reminded of why people bother to fiddle with sentences, I often read poetry.

  Nicholson Baker

  People, Want, Bother

  5 Copy quote

• The Democrats planned to fiddle while Rome burned. The Republicans were going to burn Rome, then fiddle.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Humorous, Party

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.30, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• My mother and dad played the fiddle and the guitar.

  Gordie Howe

  Mother, Dad, Guitar

  Interview with Arash Markazi, www.si.com. May 15, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lingering laughter fled from his eyes as he realized that he'd given himself away. "Where's Fiddle now?" "Safe and cared for. Safer than you'll be if you don't answer my questions." Ping. He managed not to laugh, but it looked like a hard fight. "Dung," Makenna muttered. the knight's expression changed to startled disapproval. A prig, as he? Maybe she could use that. "I said you should let me handle this," Cogswhallop told her. "I'd have meant it.

  Hilari Bell

  Laughter, Eye, Fighting

  4 Copy quote

• Those who refuse to play second fiddle may wind up playing no fiddle at all.

  Mason Cooley

  Wind, Play, Arrogance

  7 Copy quote

• Living in Cape Breton, it's really all about fiddle music, so it's not like there were other instruments out there that tempted me and it was like I had to decide which one. It was automatically fiddle, because it's the predominant instrument in Cape Breton Island.

  Natalie MacMaster

  Islands, Capes, Instruments

  4 Copy quote

• There are some people who do great stuff singing and playing fiddle at the same time and doing that kind of arrangement. But I think [I don't do that] partially because I'm still a loner on the guitar and banjo.

  Sam Amidon

  Thinking, Guitar, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's a beautiful lucid dream that has language that I can fiddle with.

  Coleman Barks

  Beautiful, Dream, Language

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• My dad plays the fiddle. He stopped playing for years. He was playing when I was a baby, and then he stopped for about five years, or ten years, he says. Then all of a sudden he started playing again, and we all got interested. We started having people like Ciarán Tourish coming up to the house, and Dinny McLaughlin, who taught Ciarán, and who taught myself as well. And it just grew from that

  Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh

  Baby, Dad, Play

  4 Copy quote