“I talk to the audience, look into their eyes. I need them and they need me.”

I’m one of those regular weird people.

I got treated very badly in Texas. They don’t treat beatniks too good in Texas. Port Arthur people thought I was a beatnik, though they’d never seen one and neither had I.

You can’t make up something that you don’t feel. I didn’t make it up. I just opened my mouth and it existed.

To be true to myself, to be the person that was on the inside of me, and not play games.

Don’t you know that you’re nothing more than a one night stand?

My father wouldn’t get us a TV, he wouldn’t allow a TV in the house.

Man, there ain’t gonna be nothing left for Janis.

You can feel all things at once, so why not wear all things at once?

It’s hard to be free but when it works, it’s worth it!

Distance cannot kill this relationship. Time cannot breakdown anything we have. This is a relationship that I am ready to sacrifice and stand up for.

Maybe my audiences can enjoy my music more if they think I’m destroying myself.

I’d rather not sing than sing quiet.

That’s what rock and roll is for, turn that switch on, and man, it can all be.

I won’t quit to become someone’s old lady.

When you hold somebody, you gotta hold them like it’s the last minute of your life.

My business is to enjoy and have fun. And why not, if in the end everything will end, right?

When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, ‘Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don’t believe?’

Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.

If for the sake of a crowded audience you do wish to hold a lecture, your ambition is no laudable one, and at least avoid all citations from the poets, for to quote them argues feeble industry.

I have a genuine love affair with my audience. When I’m on stage they’re not privileged to see me. It’s a privilege for me to see them.

I love being on stage, I love being able to tell a story, I love the fact that the audience listens and laughs at it. It makes me happy, and it’s what I live for.

The roar of the crowd has always been the sweetest music. It’s intoxicating.

When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that’s a gift – to you and your audience.

The best way to make your audience laugh is to start laughing yourself.