“I’ve been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer.”

I never use that word, retire.

The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I’ll keep playing until I feel like I can’t.

I don’t try to just be a blues singer – I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.

I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.

Elvis, he was unique. And he loved the blues, it was a pity he didn’t do more.

May I live forever. But may you live forever and a day.

And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

I’m no good with chords. I’m horrible with chords.

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy’s playing blues like we play, he’s in high school. When he starts playing jazz it’s like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

Sometimes the proprietors of the little juke joints gave me a couple dollars. I loved that. I’d go back next Saturday.

There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I haven’t yet done.

Education is the one thing that no one can take from you.

I do it because I still get a kick out of it. I still love performing. It keeps me young.

A guitar is like an old friend that is there with me.

We are here because there are things that need our help. Like the planet. Like each other. Like animals. The world is like a garden, and we are its protectors.

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!

The worst reconciliation is better than the best divorce.

Hollywood – that’s a place where love is viewed both pragmatically and philosophically in the saying, ‘Tis better to have loved and divorced than never to have had any publicity at all.

You know why divorces are so expensive? They’re worth it.

Land and sea, weakness and decline are great separators, but death is the great divorcer for ever.

I am a woman who is a granddaughter of a lady who used to be beaten on the head by her husband, of a mother who went through hell because she was divorced and had to bring up these kids. And I can take 10 men out to lunch and pay the bill, and nobody even thinks twice about it. So don’t mess with me.

I tell you, if I’m going to go through a divorce, I would date again a younger man. Because I have so much energy, there’s no way an older man can keep up with me.

I tell you, if I’m going to go through a divorce, I would date again a younger man. Because I have so much energy, there’s no way an older man can keep up with me.

I tell you, if I’m going to go through a divorce, I would date again a younger man. Because I have so much energy, there’s no way an older man can keep up with me.