The blues are three L's - living , loving and hopefully, laughing.

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

The early years when I was starting, blues player, you wasn't always welcome in a lot of the other places. People usually have preconceived ideas about blues music. They always feel that it's depressing and that it's just something that a guy sit out on a stool, grab a guitar, and just start singing or mumbling or whatever.

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.

Michael Bloomfield came in after rock n roll started, and he was a great guitarist. He idolized me - I know that. What else can I say ? he was a young, excitable man. To him, drugs were plentiful, and that was no good. I talked to him like he was a son of mine. He was a great and he was gonna be greater. But he was part of the "in-crowd" and so he never got there

I don’t like to feel that I owe anything. I like to feel that I pay my own way, no free lunch.

It's going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music.