Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett was an American singer-songwriter, musician, composer, writer, actor, and entrepreneur, born on December 25, 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
His education took him through several institutions, among them McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, Pearl River Community College, Auburn University, and the University of Southern Mississippi. From those foundations he built a career that moved across music, writing, performance, and business, working in English throughout. His professional range — composing, recording, acting, and entrepreneurial activity — placed him in multiple creative and commercial arenas over the course of his life.
Among the honors he received, Buffett was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Miami. He died on September 1, 2023, in Sag Harbor, New York.
His notable work included "Margaritaville," a song that stood as one of the most recognized pieces in his catalog and a persistent point of reference in his identity as an artist. As both a songwriter and a writer, Buffett returned repeatedly to that work's particular register, and it remained a consistent marker across his output in both roles.
Quotes by Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett's insights on:
You find as a writer that there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.
I feel like goin' surfing in a hurricane / I feel like makin' love in the pouring rain / I ain't afraid of dying / I don't need to explain / I feel like goin' surfing in a hurricane
So I sit on a bench in Jackson Square / I drink my wine and I breathe the midnight air / Tomorrow I'll just hit the street and bum another dime / Cause there's nothing soft about hard times
Had to go 'cause I could see I wasn't meant for poverty / The family ties were broken soon and I went off to find the moon
The muscles that controlled my smile were rarely ever used / Cause there's nothing soft about hard times
Every day held a new surprise / I watched the hunger burning in my sister's eyes / The paste-board shack we called home / Would haunt me in my dreams / Cause there's nothing soft about hard times
Found myself a matchbook / Beside some hotel bed / Opened it up and looked inside / And this is what it said / Get on back to school.
Ain't no registration / Ain't no student loan / You may not learn to read or write / But you will surely learn to roll dem bones / Get on back to school.
There are relics from Apollo trips / When the earthmen came to play / And a hammock from a distant star / Out in the Milky Way.