I'm always storing away phrases and ideas and things that I think might turn into songs.

The idea was I'd never amount to anything in music, The theme there was that I was talented, but I wouldn't work hard enough to do anything with it.

Everybody cryin' mercy / When they don't know the meaning of the word.

I never thought I was playing black music. I was just playing music, the stuff I liked. I sang blues at parties and things when I was a kid.

If it's worth remembering, I'll remember it. If something keeps coming back, if I keep thinking of that phrase, if I see manifestations of it at different times and different places, then I feel it's worth making a song out of.

I have no idea what I'm doin'. I've never seen me.

I'm happy whenever anybody does my material. I don't care what they do with it. I do what I want to with other people's songs.