I'd been an expert at taking beatings. Then I had a lucky break where I did a bully in, by total sheer luck. ... One minute I was the mark, and with just one swift move, I put the big man in school down. ... Once he was down, the whole atmosphere in the schoolyard changed. A huge cloud seemed to be lifted from me. ... I'd never been aware the cloud was so large.

Everything they’d been brought up not to do, they could do at a rock-and-roll show.

Let me be clear about this. I don't have a drug problem. I have a police problem.

Love has sold more songs than you've had hot dinners.

You didn't know whether Chuck Berry was black or white - it was not a concern.

If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

I have no idea what the audience makes of me.