I went to school, but they didn't give you too much schooling because just as soon as you was big enough, you get to working in the fields. I guess I was a big boy for my age.

The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.

Of course that was my idol, Son House. I think he did a lot for the Mississippi slide down there.

I stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them strings with a bottleneck. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had to learn.

If you got something you don't want other people to know, keep it in your pocket.

Man, you don't know how I felt that afternoon when I heard that VOICE and it was my own VOICE.

Find me playing till sunrise for 50 cents and a sandwich.

My blues are so simple, but so few people can play it right

At night in the country, you'd be surprised how that music carries. You could hear my guitar way before you get to the house, and you could hear the peoples hollerin' and screamin'.

I been in the blues all my life. I'm still delivering 'cause I got a long memory.

I was messing around with the harmonica... but I was 13 before I got a real good note out of it.

Systems and processes will always surpass motivation.

Despite the loss they were suffering, they'd both relaxed - as people do when they realize they've run out of chances for happiness

One of the things I enjoy most is to be left alone with a book.

Fear can indeed be the beginning of wisdom.

The bagger is the technique of lazy.

I can't write if someone else is in the house, not even the cleaning woman.

A person who cannot handle setbacks will never handle victories either.

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.

Anti-Semitism is the rumour about the Jews.

Being around people like Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack, all these greats, I was taught to listen and observe.