woody quotes

"This song is COPYRIGHTED in U.S. under seal of copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of our'n, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it, write it, sing it, swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it; that's all we wanted to do."

"The worst thing that can happen to you is to cut yourself loose from people. And the best thing is to sort of vaccinate yourself right into the big streams and blood of the people.... to feel that you know the best and the worst of folks that you see everywhere, and never to feel weak, or lost, or even lonesome anywhere.... there is just one thing that can cut you to drifting from the people, and that's any brand or style of greed.... There is just one way to save yourself and that's to get together and work and fight vor everybody."

John Steinbeck on Woody: "Because all his life, what Woody stood for and sang about and talked about was the people he lived amongst, their work, and their laughter and their struggle. Woody was a guy who couldn't stand to see kids with swollen hungry bellies. He wanted his people to have jobs and better pay. He was a passionate union man. He wanted people to have good houses and land to grow things and above all, freedom to sing and speak and grow and drink and gamble and have whatever kind of fun and happiness this place can provide."