It's not the size of the ship; it's the size of the waves.

I think they saw me as something like a deliverer, a way out. My means of expression, my music, was a way in which a lot of people wished they could express themselves and couldn't.

When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.

If at first you don't succeed, you get back up and you try ... and you try ... and you try it again ... except ice skating, I hate this crap, I quit!

I always knew I was a man, always felt that I was a man, always wanted to be a man.

I never heard nobody in my audience call me any kind of names.

A lot of people call me the architect of rock & roll. I don't call myself that, but I believe it's true.