I feel like the blues is actually some kind of documentary of the past and the present - and something to give people inspiration for the future.

The blues will always be because the blues are the roots of all American music.

A bad rendition of you is better than a good rendition of somebody else.

It could be a spoonful of diamonds, could be a spoonful of gold. Just a little spoon of your precious love satisfies my soul.

The blues is the roots, the rest is the fruits.

I see you watching me like a hawk. I don't mind about the things you talk. But if you touch me something's got to give. I live the life I love and I love the life I live.

The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits

People have been brainwashed into believing that it's got to be down or it wouldn't be blues. But it's not so. It's got to be a fact or it wouldn't be blues.

The blues has been the foundation of all other American music since the beginning.

I don't want you to cook my bread, I don't want you to make my bed. I don't want you to because I'm sad and blue, I just want to make love to you.

Sonny Boy Williamson (II) was a beautiful guy, a straight guy... (but) he was always raising hell one way or another, so you never could tell if he was drunk or sober.

There were two immediate results of my forced loneliness: I began to find company in books, and greater pleasure in music.

When humanity's deafness to simple common sense is allowed to reign, the implications for the world can only be catastrophic.

I've been treating you with courtesy and respect because that's the way I choose to treat everyone. But never, ever mistake kindness with weakness.

Forget artificial intelligence - in the brave new world of big data, it's artificial idiocy we should be looking out for.

Some people are so methodical that that is all they are or ever will be.

Jesus is no draughtsman of political blueprints, he is the one who vanquished evil through suffering. It looked as though evil had triumphed on the cross, but the real victory belonged to Jesus.

I'm coming to the artist with a smash. I'm like, "Yo this is a smash. We've got to go in."

There are no atheists in foxholes" isn't an argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes.

Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.

If I ever bore you, it'll be with a knife.