“It’s taken me to be an older guy, an old man, to have an old man’s voice. Because I only liked old men’s voices. As a kid, I didn’t like pip-squeaked singers.”

My original interests and intentions in guitar playing were primarily created on quality of tone, for instance, the way the instrument could be made to echo or simulate the human voice.

It is painful to relive things that have caused emotional crises or whatever and find ways to express that musically.

A British pressing with a compilation of the best stuff really, I mean actually not only that but, these were all kind of semi hits for the people on it in America.

The toughest thing about being a celebrity, I suppose, is being polite when I don’t want to be.

Plant your love and let it grow.

If you hand me a guitar, I’ll play the blues. That’s the place I automatically go.

When all the original blues guys are gone, you start to realize that someone has to tend to the tradition. I recognize that I have some responsibility to keep the music alive, and it’s a pretty honorable position to be in.

I’m an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.

To sing in a lower key is harder work. You have to use your diaphragm more.

They found our hero in the gutter with a diamond ring and a gun.

And if I don’t be there by morning, she’ll know that I must’ve spent the night in jail.

All I am certain of right now is that I don’t want to go anywhere, and that’s not bad for someone who always used to run.

I like solitude. I like the anomalous life. I like a quiet life.

Would you know my name, if I saw you in Heaven?

I remember when I thought of singing as the bit that went between the guitar playing – something I couldn’t wait to get out of the way. Singing was originally like a chore that I didn’t really enjoy.

My driving philosophy about making music is that you can reduce it all down to one note if that note is played with the right kind of sincerity.

Nothing, it is true, is more common than for both Science and Art to pay homage to the spirit of the age, and for creative taste to accept the law of critical taste.

I don’t know whether I’ll reach 40. I don’t know whether I’ll reach 35. I can’t be sure about that. I am bloody serious. I am very, very serious. I didn’t think I’d make 30.

Age is just a number. Who cares how old the girl is that I date?

You should not consider a man’s age but his acts.

I never fit in with my peer group. I never hung out with kids my age – I always wanted to hang out with my mom and her girlfriends.

It’s paradoxical, that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.

I’m over 30 now, but I didn’t expect to be here.

Stay out of the sun, because it is the worst thing in terms of aging. I’m very medical. I come from a medical family.