I'm even afraid to lay down with you at night, because when you go to bed at night, mean woman, you got an ice pick in your hand.

The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.

I don't play a lot of fancy guitar. I don't want to play it. The kind of guitar I want to play is mean, mean licks.

When I die, they'll bury the blues with me. But the blues will never die.

I don't do nothin’ I don't want to do.

I don't think about time. You're here when you're here. I think about today, staying in tune.

The one thing the blues don't get is the backing and pushing of TV and radio like a lot of this garbage you hears. They choke stuff down people's throat so they got no choice but to listen to it.

No matter what you got, the blues is there

It's never hard to sing the blues. Everyone in the world has the blues . . .

I remember back in Detroit, I used to go to the Apex Bar every night after I got off work. The bartender there used to call me Boom Boom. I don't know why, but he did.

I hitchhiked, took trucks 'n' trains - anything that would pick me up. I stopped in Memphis for about six months and they found me and come got me. Stayed about a month an' split again.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Our desire must be like a slow and stately ship sailing across endless oceans never in search of safe anchorage. Then suddenly unexpectedly it will find mooring for a moment.

Indeed the general natural Tendency of Reading good History, must be, to fix in the Minds of Youth deep Impressions of the Beauty and Usefulness of Virtue of all Kinds, Publick Spirit, Fortitude.

I think you need clarity with financing [for presidency campaign]. I do think this. I think that you need clarity, you have to be able to see who's giving.

I'm having a good time. Managing my things takes a lot of time.

I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas; I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.

I didn't know what to expect from a famous movie star; maybe that he'd be sort of stuck-up, you know. But not Gary Cooper. He horsed around so much... that I had a hard time painting him.

Girl, boy or dancing bear, you're the finest page-the finest squire-to-be-at court." (Jon to Alanna)

I'm perpetually curious as to what happened to all those supposed prodigies who were singled out while I and my coterie of far more interesting malcontents passed on.

Do anything in this world but monkey with somebody eles's religion. What reasoning of conceit makes anyone think theirs is right?