I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.

I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.

I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man.

When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

I never use that word, retire.

I think Ive done the best I could have done. But I keep wanting to play better, go further. There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I havent yet done. When I was younger I thought maybe Id reached that peak. But Im 86 now, and if I make it through to next month, Ill be 87. And now I know it can never be perfect, it can never be exactly what it should be, so you got to keep going further, getting better.

I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother's aunt, who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and a few others.