I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.

If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.

Lust may be in the heart, though it be not seen by others; as guests may be in the house, though they look not out at the windows.

I don't think I'm singing. I feel like I'm playing a horn...What comes out is what I feel.

I don't think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.

I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.