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

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.

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 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.

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's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva

The single most important ingredient to success is Discipline.

Fairy's side note: Even people who don't believe in magic really do.

Defensive strategy never has produced ultimate victory.

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

I wanted to explore black culture, and I wanted that culture to be a revelation.

I am someone who hopes for the best and prepares for the worst.

Possibly the words materialism and spirituality express two sides of one and the same fact.

Without action, you aren't going anywhere.

Death smells like homemade applesauce as it cooks on the stove. It is not the strangling scent of illness. It is not fear. It is freedom.