Minstrels Quotes

• I subscribe to that school of thespian - to be a wandering minstrel or traveling player, a thing of rags and patches, of ballads, songs and snatches.

  Julian Sands

  Song, School, Player

  "The Delightfully Prickly Julian Sands". Interview with Michelle Orange, www.ifc.com. August 3, 2009.

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• I want to feel the surging
  Of my sad people's soul
  Hidden by a minstrel-smile.

  Gwendolyn B. Bennett

  People, Soul, Want

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• America sometimes resembles, at least from the point of view of a black man, an exceedingly monotonous minstrel show; the same dances, same music, same jokes. One has done (or been) the show so long that one can do it in one’s own sleep.

  James A. Baldwin

  Sleep, Men, Views

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• Shatter the icons of slavery and fear.
  Replace
  the leer
  of the minstrel's burnt-cork face
  with a proud, serene
  and classic bronze of Benin.

  Dudley Randall

  Icons, Slavery, Proud

  Dudley Randall (2009). “Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall”, p.185, Wayne State University Press

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• I'm not comfortable with just entertaining. Although I like entertaining, I also like bringing forward the truth of our times as minstrels used to in the old days.

  Serj Tankian

  Truth, Used, Entertaining

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I extract what I consider the best material from different sources. But often the material I perform comes from a very strange location in history, which are minstrel shows.

  Leon Redbone

  Different, Location, Strange

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• Every lover is, in his heart, a madman, and, in his head, a minstrel.

  Neil Gaiman

  Heart, Most Romantic, Lovers

  Neil Gaiman (2007). “Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust: Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie”, Vertigo

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• The inner music of the Soul is the real song. It's tunes are self-existing and self-supporting and need no outer aids of hands, feet or tongue and lead to the source from whence they come, the Minstrel divine.

  Kirpal Singh

  Song, Real, Self

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• O for the gentleness of old Romance, the simple planning of a minstrel's song!

  John Keats

  Song, Simple, Romance

  John Keats (1962). “John Keats: With a Detailed Study and Text of Selected Poems”

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• And I remember most of what I know that is good and true and lasting has come not from scholars but from minstrels and gypsies.

  Robert James Waller

  Knowledge, Gypsy, Remember

  Robert James Waller (1990). “One good road is enough: essays”, Wiley-Blackwell

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• Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, As home his footsteps he hath turn'd From wandering on a foreign strand! If such there breathe, go mark him well; For him no Minstrel raptures swell; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.

  Walter Scott

  Home, Heart, Men

  Sir Walter Scott (1873). “Poetical Works”, p.42

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• Breathes there the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land.

  Walter Scott

  Patriotic, Country Love, Men

  The Lay of the Last Minstrel canto 6, st. 1 (1805)

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• Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
  The wretch, concentred all in self,
  Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
  And, doubly dying, shall go down
  To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
  Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.

  Walter Scott

  Groundhog Day, Self, Dust

  The Lay of the Last Minstrel canto 6, st. 1 (1805)

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• A wandering minstrel I A thing of shreds and patches Of ballads, songs and snatches And dreamy lullaby!

  Walter Raleigh

  Song, Journey, Patches

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• The way was long, the wind was cold, The Minstrel was infirm and old; His withered cheek, and tresses gray, Seemed to have know a better day.

  Walter Scott

  Wind, Long, Way

  Sir Walter Scott, J. W. Lake (1843). “The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott: With a Sketch of His Life”, p.1

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• I didn't want to do the sitcom thing, but I didn't know what else to do.

  William Shatner

  Want, Sitcom, Knows

  "William Shatner Interview S#*! My Dad Says". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. September 19, 2010.

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• If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them.

  Jack Vance

  Would Be, Maidens, Creatures

  Jack Vance (1965). “The Dragon Masters”, p.58, Spatterlight Press

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• We need to look beyond the obvious. Yes, there are minstrel images in hip-hop. Yes, there are demeaning, anti-racist, misogynistic and homophobic representations. We could make the same case about the church and our government. But hip-hop, like society, isn't one dimensional.

  Bakari Kitwana

  Government, Hip Hop, Church

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• Your roots, your family, your friends all become so much more important to you as you get older, especially if you are a wandering minstrel like me.

  Amanda Donohoe

  Roots, Important, Wander

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• I have the instincts of a minstrel rather than those of a scrivener. There you have it. We are not of the same trade at all and so how can your rules fit me?

  John Steinbeck

  Fit, Instinct, Trade

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• I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Song, Kings, Princess

  "The Name of the Wind". Book by Patrick Rothfuss, March 27, 2007.

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• Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?

  William Wordsworth

  Eye, Heart, Sky

  1825 'To a Skylark', l.1-4 (published 1827).

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• There was a time in medieval England when they had wandering minstrels ... A wandering minstrel would have been Frank Sinatra's counterpart had he lived during the time of Henry II in 1190 or 1180.

  Frank Sinatra, Jr.

  England, Medieval, Wander

  Source: www.news-journalonline.com

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• The triumphs of the warrior are bounded by the narrow theatre of his own age; but those of a Scott or a Shakspeare will be renewed with greater and greater lustre in ages yet unborn, when the victorious chieftain shall be forgotten, or shall live only in the song of the minstrel and the page of the chronicler.

  William H. Prescott

  Song, Warrior, Age

  WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT (1858). “BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL MISCELLANIES”, p.239

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• The after-silence, when the feast is o'er,And void the places where the minstrels stood,Differs in nought from what hath been before,And is nor ill nor good.

  William Watson

  Silence, Void, Ill

  William Watson (1936). “The Poems of Sir William Watson: 1878-1935”

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