The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn't know how other people would take it.

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

When you don't have much money, you worry that they'll just put you in the ground someplace and your loved ones won't know where you are.

Being a blues singer is like being black two times.

Sometimes the proprietors of the little juke joints gave me a couple dollars. I loved that. I'd go back next Saturday.

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

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!