“People have kept on asking me: did he sing well? I reply, the world is a song, but we do not know whether it is a good song because we have nothing to compare it with.”
Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)
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Halldór Laxness 216
Icelandic author 1902–1998Related quotes

“The whales do not sing because they have an answer. They sing because they have a song.”
Ashes and Snow : A Novel in Letters (2005) Flying Elephants Press

Gleason, Ralph (06-28-1969). 1952 interview of Hank Williams. Rolling Stone.

[Post Staff, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/recollections-king-father, Recollections of the King Father, 3 February 2013, 29 June 2015, Phnom Penh Post]

“He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people.”
As quoted in Woody Guthrie: A Life (1981) by Joe Klein, p. 160
Context: Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name. He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of the people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.

“A good song can only do good, and I am proud of the songs I have sung.”
Statement to the court prior to his sentencing for contempt of Congress (1961); also quoted on NPR: Weekend Edition (2 July 2005)
Context: A good song can only do good, and I am proud of the songs I have sung. I hope to be able to continue singing these songs for all who want to listen, Republicans, Democrats, and independents.