[on his first stringed instrument] It wasn't a guitar. In Louisiana you've got mosquitoes that will lift you out of bed and no glass in the windows. My mother saved ten cents and bought a piece of screen and tacked it on. I stripped little pieces of wire, stretched on nails and picked on it.

I listen to people in bars. I imagine some of those people don't know nothing about music, but they're singing to me, because what they said, I've been through.

[on persuading President Obama to perform the blues] I'd have a double dose of blues if I had to remember all the names [he has to]. Somebody whispered that if you sing 'Sweet Home Chicago' he may come up and sing a verse. I was fit to go on the table if he didn't do it 'cause everybody'd be saying, Hey man, you done made some kind of remark at the Commander in Chief.