I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute.

My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that.

Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.

The two things you can't fake are good food and good music

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.

What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.

At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over and life is like a song.

I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.

A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.

When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.

I want a Sunday kind of love A love to last past Saturday night And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight

God will let you into the battlefield so you can understand the meaning of victory.

Hewas beautiful. I know, it’s not the manliest way to describe a guy, but inmy head, it was the adjective I used most often and it fit him to a tee.

Challenges in life always seek leaders and leaders seek challenges.

It is human to err but it is devilish to remain willfully in error.

Gardeners instinctively know that flowers and plants are a continuum and that the wheel of garden history will always be coming full circle.

There isn't a Monday that would not cede its place to Tuesday.

I've always wanted to do all kinds of roles, dramatic roles and comedic roles, all kinds of roles.

A wise politician will never grudge a genuflexion or a rapture if it is expected of him by prevalent opinion.

I feel that America is essentially against the artist, that the enemy of America is the artist, because he stands for individuality and creativeness, and that's un-American somehow.

Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything.