Scott Joplin

"That’s who I am. I don’t look much like him now with my foot wrapped up and all that kind of business."

"Boy, when I'm dead twenty-five years, people are going to begin to recognize me."

"Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music, and to shy bricks at "hateful ragtime" no longer passes for musical culture."

"What is scurrilously called ragtime is an invention that is here to stay. That is now conceded by all classes of musicians."

"Never play ragtime fast at any time."

"Panic in Wall Street, brokers feeling melancholy."

"Good times coming. Good times have come."

"Listening to the strains of genuine negro ragtime, brokers forget their cares."