Popular Quotes Through Time

From the beginning, I knew intuitively that if nothing else, music was safe, and that nobody could tell me anything about it. Music didn't need a middleman, whereas all the other things in school needed some kind of explanation.

Although they can do it all the time, you know, they're far better than me, on a musically, on a theoretical music level. You know, they're out of my league.

I mean, the sound of an amplified guitar in a room full of people was so hypnotic and addictive to me, that I could cross any kind of border to get on there.

Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying around, I'd rather lie around. No contest.

I grew up playing in clubs - that's my spiritual stomping ground.

The blues are what I've turned to, what has given me inspiration and relief in all the trials of my life.

To sing in a lower key is harder work. You have to use your diaphragm more.

I sought my father in the world of the black musician, because it contained wisdom, experience, sadness and loneliness. I was not ever interested in the music of boys. From my youngest years, I was interested in the music of men.

I just like the company of beautiful women. I have a weakness in that department. And I suppose because I am fairly well off and a famous musician, I'm up for grabs. And that makes me an eligible bachelor in the press.

Well, I think part of my gift, or if I have one, is that I love listening.

I'd love to knock an audience cold with one note, but what do you do for the rest of the evening?

I don't have half the nerves there that I have anywhere else.

It was a mystery to me, how the tuning was, or the style seemed to come out of nowhere, it obviously had roots in America going way back, there was nothing like it for me I'd ever seen before.

I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist.

An obsession is where something will not leave your mind.

I like solitude. I like the anomalous life. I like a quiet life.

It's taken me to be an older guy, an old man, to have an old man's voice. Because I only liked old men's voices. As a kid, I didn't like pip-squeaked singers.

I remember hearing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Big Bill Broonzy, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and not really knowing anything about the geography or the culture of the music. But for some reason it did something to me - it resonated.

I feel a real need to observe a level of propriety in what I'm handing out. Instead of me just venting or spilling my guts, I've got to consider how it's going to affect people. How it's going to affect me, as well. Because it's like a cycle.

The toughest thing about being a celebrity, I suppose, is being polite when I don't want to be.