My future starts when I wake up every morning.

You have to be born with it. You can't even buy it. If you could buy it, they'd have it at the next Newport Festival.

Lionel [Richie] said, "Yeah, I learned chords and stuff playin' against your albums."

It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

You can't compete with Sweets' sound and time feel. It's impossible.

Tom Jones is funny to me, man. I mean, he really tries to ape Ray Charles and Sammy Davis, you know. He's nice-looking; he looks good doing it. I mean, if I was him, I'd do the same thing. If I was only thinking about making money.

Sometimes [playing free] doesn't happen, because maybe a guy's wife'll come in, you know, and his ego will catch him. If everybody's completely just straight-without any old ladies over here, a fourth of whisky over there; if it's balanced right, it'll come off. It has to be. But when you get egos involved with playing free, you can't do it.