“Janis Joplin sings the blues as hard as any black person.”

I look at an audience kind of like meeting my in-laws for the first time. You want to be yourself, but you still want to be somebody that they like. When I go on the stage each night, I try my best to outguess my audience.

If you can’t get your songs to people one way, you have to find another.

Nobody loves me but my mother, And she could be jivin’ too.

It just seemed to me that the way I played was nice. I could hear it myself.

I’ve put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.

I don’t like anybody to be angry with me. I’d rather have friends.

A day that I don’t learn something new is a wasted day.

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

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.

It’s hard when all you want is the sky, chasing after the hues of pinks and blues, feeling that for once you’ve got a grip on clouds that swoosh through storms of your own. But it’s worse when you ask for the sun and receiving the soil stuck to your feet.

No matter how hard these waves crash they will not break me.

Crying so hard, I can’t hardly breathe.

Hard crash everything good has to end take your fucking Prozac.

You ask me questions that you don’t want to know the answer to.

You are so lovable but so hard to love.

You shined your light on all the things I’ve been trying so hard to hide.

Don’t you see? That I kiss you a little harder. That I hug you a little harder. I want you to heal me.