Memphis Quotes

I'd been to Memphis before, but we stayed out of Memphis early on in the late 70s for obvious reasons. People were very sensitive about Elvis Presley, and my stage name obviously would be provocative to some people in that area at that time. (Elvis Costello)
I used to go down every year for the remembrance of Elvis' birthday. Memphis State College invited me to sit in the auditorium and speak to the people for one of those Elvis days. View quote
Otis Blackwell
She would go to Memphis and this was after our divorce. And I would send her to Memphis to be with him. View quote
Priscilla Presley
From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe, wherever the four winds blow I been in some big towns an' heard me some big talk, but there is one thing I know A woman's a two-face, a worrisome thing who'll leave ya to sing the blues in the night. View quote
Johnny Mercer
It's funny, when you're a child you think time will never go by, but when you hit about twenty, time passes like you're on the fast train to Memphis. I guess life just slips up on everybody. It sure did on me. View quote
Fannie Flagg
The city of Memphis has demonstrated that neither character nor standing avails the Negro if he dares to protect himself against the white man or become his rival. View quote
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
I spent a few years here in Memphis, in the late '70s and early '80s, where I was studying a lot of country blues players and their styles. So it seems like every record I'll do, I will appropriate these blues styles that I remember. View quote
Alex Chilton
I got arrested once on stage in Memphis for looking too much like Liza Minnelli. View quote
David Johansen
I get called 'Memphis Eve,' but my first name is Eve. I know Memphis is in there somewhere, but on my passport I'm 'Eve Sunny Day Hewson. View quote
Eve Hewson
Judging from what looks like the popularity of this classic wrestling show is that the people like what they have grown to know and love here in Memphis. View quote
Jerry Lawler
I love Motown, but I've obviously always been more of a Memphis soul fan. If it's Stax or Motown, I go Stax. (Justin Townes Earle)
I used to listen to the radio, and when I was about 18 years old, B.B. King was a disc jockey and he had a radio program, 15 minutes a day, over in West Memphis, Arkansas, and he would play the blues. View quote
Koko Taylor
A friend of mine took me to Memphis advised me that I should get in the musicians' union. He gave me a set of drums and said, Stay on the job, son. View quote
Levon Helm
Memphis is in a very lucky position on the map. Everything just gravitated to Memphis for years. View quote
Steve Cropper
Growing up in Memphis and listening to all kinds of music and dreaming... So that was one of the first times I wrote a complete song and set it to music and the whole bit. From then on, I was busy with it. View quote
William Bell
Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee. View quote
Robert F. Kennedy
No such thing as a hard woman, Memphis, just soft men. With that, I turned, and the others followed me. View quote
Laurell K. Hamilton
When I got outta High School I was driving a truck. I was just a poor boy from Memphis, Memphis. View quote
Elvis Presley
Man, that record came out and was real big in Memphis. They started playing it, and it got real big. Don't know why-the lyrics had no meaning. View quote
Elvis Presley
I'll stay in Memphis. View quote
Elvis Presley
Over the last few months, these goals have driven President Obama and me to announce a series of Administration proposals that will enable us to help heal mistrust wherever it is found – from a National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, to a historic new Task Force on 21st Century Policing – which will provide strong, federal support to law enforcement at every level, on a scale not seen since the Johnson Administration. These aims have also led me to travel throughout the country – to Atlanta, Cleveland, Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland and San Francisco – to convene a series of roundtable discussions dedicated to building trust and engagement between law enforcement, civil rights, youth and community leaders from coast to coast. (Eric Holder)
The restless dust of Los Angeles fevered him. He was a greater wanderer than myself, and all day long he sought out perverse loves in the parks. But he was so ugly he never found his desire, and the warm nights with low stars and yellow moon tortured him away from his room until the dawn arrived...Some day he would leave this hated city, some day he would go back where friendship meant something, and sure enough, he went away and I got a postcard signed "Memphis Kid" from Fort Worth, Texas. View quote
John Fante
I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her in amazement. It was on reputedly disreputable Beale Street in Memphis that I had met the warmest, friendliest person I had ever known, that I discovered that all human beings were not mean and driving, were not bigots like the members of my family. View quote
Richard Wright
My friends, the time for action is upon us. The enemies of justice wants you to think of Dr. King as only a civil rights leader, but he had a much broader agenda. He was a tireless crusader for the rights of the poor, for an end to the war in Vietnam long before it was popular to take that stand, and for the rights of workers everywhere. Many people find it convenient to forget that Martin was murdered while supporting a desperate strike on that tragic day in Memphis, Tennessee. He died while fighting for the rights of sanitation workers. Dr. King's dedication to the rights of the workers who are so often exploited by the forces of greed has profoundly touched my life and guided my struggle. View quote
Cesar Chavez
Smooth as the hickory wind that blows from Memphis down to Apalachicola. It's "Hi, y'all, did you eat well? Come on in, I'm sure glad to know ya." Don't let this old gold cross and this Allman Brothers t-shirt throw ya. It's cicadas making noise with the Southern voice. View quote
Tim McGraw