Put your faith in God and confidence in yourself.

People think the blues is sad. They hear people moaning and such. That's not the blues. That's just somebody singing slow...The blues is about truth-telling.

The musicians that didn't know music could play the best blues. I know that I don't want no musicians who know all about music playin' for me.

I’ve been more places by accident than most people have been on purpose.

I'm just singing for the women who think they can't speak out. Can't a man alive mistreat me, 'cause I know who I am.

Blues means what milk does to a baby. Blues is what the spirit is to the minister. We sing the blues because our hearts have been hurt, our souls have been disturbed.

Maybe if I knew music, I couldn't do what I am doing.