“It’s been very important throughout my career that I’ve met all the guys I’ve copied, because at each stage they’ve said, ‘Don’t play like me, play like you.’”

I never set myself too high a goal. It was always tone and feeling, for me.

I wish I could write easily. I’m one of those guys who’s visited by the muse when things are dire.

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees.

One of the most beneficial things I’ve ever learned is how to keep my mouth shut.

I saw you walking with your other man today. If I catch you one more time, I’m gonna blow you both away.

There are people these days who can do things on the guitar which are beyond my reach. There’s one guy who plays with Queen who can do things I would dream of doing. I sincerely mean that.

For me, the most trustworthy vehicle for spirituality had always proven to be music.

I’m not a big fan of lead vocalists, people who sing but don’t play. I never wanted to be in a band where the guy who was up front just sang. I’ve always thought it better when one of the musicians sings, like Steve Winwood.

Music will always find its way to us, with or without business, politics, religion, or any other bullshit attached.

Oh yeah, I mean, it wasn’t a very good guitar, most good guitars have got thrust rods in the necks that you can adjust or that’ll keep them in shape, you know keep them straight. This one just, well it turned into a bow and arrow after a couple of months.

It’s very dependent on your state of mind. And your emotional state as well. And a lot of it comes pouring out, you don’t really have that much control with it.

Well, I think part of my gift, or if I have one, is that I love listening.

I did play a lot of fingerstyle when I first started playing. I could never really find the right combination of flatpick or fingerpick, so playing fingerstyle is really the easiest way – though it’s quite strenuous on the fingertips.

The first band I identified with from Chicago was the Muddy Waters band.

When I’m wrong it’s never meant for you, so don’t confuse my love with what I do.

I remember hearing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Big Bill Broonzy, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and not really knowing anything about the geography or the culture of the music. But for some reason it did something to me – it resonated.

I’m starting to see players copy what I do. I’m flattered.

It was my great good fortune, while I was still a student at college, to have possessed a copy of an English translation of his great work.

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.

American management thinks that they can just copy from Japan. But they don’t know what to copy.

At home I have a copy of the April 21, 1986, issue of ‘Sports Illustrated.’ I’m on the cover with the blurb, ‘Can Lou Do It?’ I’d just arrived at Notre Dame, and with spring football underway, I was the focal point of that week’s coverage.

I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at – not copy it.

The art of medicine cannot be inherited, nor can it be copied from books

I think it was [Jean-Luc] Godard who said that life is nothing but a bad copy of film, but then our ambition must be to make better films and better shapes of forms that are given in life.