B. B. King

“I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.”

“The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn't know how other people would...”

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

“If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you're going to the bank to borrow money.”

“When I was in the country and I was trying to play, nobody seemed to pay too much attention to me. People used to say, 'That's just that ole blues singer.'”

“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.”

“Once in a while, the thumb that fits over the neck of the guitar kinda bothers me a little bit, but not that much yet. I figure in time I won't do much because of my age.”

“Whenever I'm in Kansas City, I think back to all the jazz-blues greats who played the blues here - like Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Jay McShann. I watched those guys jam in different pla...”

“I'm no good with chords. I'm horrible with chords.”

“I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton... oh, there's many more! I wouldn't want to be like them, you understand, but...”

“I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street - you liv...”

“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 tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an' my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another.”

“Touring a segregated America - forever being stopped and harassed by white cops hurt you most 'cos you don't realise the damage. You hold it in. You feel empty, like someone reached in and p...”

“I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs.”

“I was a regular hand when I was 7. I picked cotton. I drove tractors. Children grew up not thinking that this is what they must do. We thought this was the thing to do to help your family.”

“Cotton was a force of nature. There's a poetry to it, hoeing and growing cotton.”

“I never met a woman I didn't like. I love 'em all, in their different ways.”

“I was a singing disc jockey who heard every type of music there was - and loved it all.”