I guess music, particularly the blues, is the only form of schizophrenia that has organised itself into being both legal and beneficial to society.

In 1940 I came across a record by Jimmy Yancey. I can't say how important that record is. From then on, all I wanted to do was play the blues.

I had always intended to make a living out of playing blues. But I never admitted it to myself. I don't suppose I could have given a logical reason for it ever becoming possible to do so.

I must have been heavily schizophrenic all my life. The me who hears what the other me can't play is the dominant one.

The British feel of blues has been hard, rather than emotional. Far too much emphasis on 12 bar, too little attention to words, far too little originality.

I'm a compulsive musician, but it's also a bloody good way out of having to do anything else.

Blues and jazz pulled me away from what was left of my family.