Going to Chicago was like going out of the world.

My grandmother, she say I shouldn't be playing. I should go to church. Fially, I say I'm going do this, I'm going do it. And she got where she didn't bother me about it.

The blacks have their parties, hustle a little liquor, get some things together, and I used to play for those peoples. They'd come get me on time, but they wouldn't bring me back on time... Done picked cotton all day, play all night long, then pick cotton all day the next day before I could get a chance to sleep.

The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.

Memphis was almost like going to California. Beale Street was the black man's street.

I wanted to get out of Mississippi in the worst way. Go back? What I want to go back for?

Robert Johnson? No, I didn't know him, personally.