Quotes about banjo

A collection of quotes on the topic of banjo.

Quotes about banjo

“A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo and doesn't.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“An unaffected man in a negative light
Could not have borne his labor nor have died
Sighing that he should leave the banjo’s twang.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Change

Light

“A sip of wine, a cigarette,
And then it’s time to go.
I tidied up the kitchenette;
I tuned the old banjo.
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam.
They’re saving me a seat.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Wine, Time

“The banjo is such a happy instrument--you can't play a sad song on the banjo - it always comes out so cheerful.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Happiness, Sadness

“Things have been invented because of alcohol. Like the taser, okay? Yeah! The morning after pill, okay? The reach-around. Judge Judy. What has pot given the world? Hackey sack? YEAH! Hilarious ring tones? OH GAH! Ultimate Frisbee Championships? It sucks to be a champion at a sport that can't get you laid. It's an unneeded skill like, I dunno, being the best banjo player. Or a squirter.”

Dave Attell (1965) comedian

"Captain Miserable"

Alcohol, World, Sport

“The late Mr. [Carl] Sandburg was a public performer of the first rank ("Ker-oh-seen!" he crooned in one of the first TV pitches for the jet-engine — ole banjo on his knee, white hair mussed by the jet-stream), a poet of the second rank (who can ever forget that feline-footed fog?) and a biographer of awesome badness.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

"First Note on Abraham Lincoln"
1990s, United States - Essays 1952-1992 (1992)

Forgetting

“Drum on your drums, batter on your banjos,
sob on the long cool winding saxophones.
Go to it, O jazzmen.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

"Jazz Fantasia" (1920)

“Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama,
With my banjo on my knee.”

Stephen Foster (1826–1864) American songwriter

Oh! Susanna, W.C. Peters & Co. (1848).
Context: Oh I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee,
I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see
It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry
The sun so hot I froze to death; Susanna, don't you cry.
Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama,
With my banjo on my knee.

Cry