And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales. I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton ... oh, there's many more! I wouldn't want to be like them, you understand, but I'd like to be equal, if you will.

I look at an audience kind of like meeting my in-laws for the first time. You want to be yourself, but you still want to be somebody that they like. When I go on the stage each night, I try my best to outguess my audience.

You never miss what you've never had. I never had any other life. I didn't know any other life.

There's a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There's also happiness to it if you want to hear it.

Albert King wasn't my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues

I never use that word, retire.