“If you say I’m great, thank you very much. But I know what I am. I could be better, man, you know?”

Music works in mysterious ways. Once it goes in you have no idea what it can do to you.

I don’t regret nothing.

What Muddy Waters did for us is what we should do for others. It’s the old thing, what you want written on your tombstone as a musician: ‘He passed it on.’

I never thought I was wasted, but I probably was.

No broken hearts, no broken necks.

The rock’s easy, but the roll is another thing.

To me, the main thing about living on this planet is to know who the hell you are and be real about it. That’s the reason I’m still alive.

I don’t trust doctors. It’s not to say there ain’t some good ones, but on a general level, no, I wouldn’t trust ’em at all.

To me, life is a wild animal. You hope to deal with it when it leaps at you.

To me, my biggest fear is getting a big head, and that is when I get the hammer. Because it’s very easy in this game to believe you’re something special.

Retire? I can’t spell the word. I’d play in a wheelchair.

I’ve never had my hair cut by anybody, I do it all myself.

I mean, give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string, I wouldn’t get bored anywhere.

I’m an unpure purist, something like that.

If you don’t know the blues there’s no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll.