JESS LAIR QUOTE

[Laurence Horn]

On Sep 13, 2011, at 8:57 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:

> There was some discussion here about the earliest occurrence of a well-known quotation.  I verified it in the privately published first edition of the book in question:
>
> If you want something very, very badly, let it go free.  If it comes back to you, it's yours forever.  If it doesn't, it was never yours to begin with.
> Jess Lair, I Ain't Much Baby -- But I'm All I've Got [page 98, chapter 19] (1969)
> Note:  This was written by one of Lair's students as part of a class assignment.
>
> Fred Shapiro
> Editor
> YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)
>
And then there's the alternate version:  If you want something very, very badly, let it go free. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn't, hunt it down and kill it.

Original source?

LH

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