B. B. King

“I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.”

“What don't I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain't nobody here saying, 'You'd better learn this.' But I still think I've got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me.”

“Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!”

“A lot of people believe what other people say.”

“I never use that word, retire.”

“I don't care for the music when they're talking bad about women because I think women are God's greatest gift to the planet - I just like music.”

“I've always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn't have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did.”

“I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I've never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I've wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn't work.”

“My last divorce was in '68. What made it come to a head was a promise. See, I had promised her that the next year I wouldn't work as much. But then I got in trouble with the IRS, and I had to continue working just as much to pay the government. So she said I lied, which is something I never did.”

“I have a nice car, a Mercedes. And then I have an old El Camino truck that I'm crazy about. I like to get in that truck and go up in the hills near where I live, in Vegas, and take my camera. That, to me, is Heaven, being out in nature, taking pictures of the wildlife.”

“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.”

“Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.”

“I've seen myself on those lists of the 100 best guitarists, and if they think that I'm that good, thank them. Thank God for them. But I don't think so.”

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

“I'm trying to get people to see that we are our brother's keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.”

“I was born on a plantation, and things weren't so good. We didn't have any money. I never thought of the word 'poor' 'til I got to be a man, but when you live in a house that you can always peek out of and see what kind of day it is, you're not doing so well. And your rest room is not inside the house.”

“I bought my first electric guitar when I moved to Memphis; a Gibson with a DeArmond pickup which I used with a small Gibson amplifier.”

“I like jazz, rock n' roll, some hip hop - I can't think of any music I don't like.”

“Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more. When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling.”

“I don't have a favorite song that I've written. But I do have a favorite song: 'Always on My Mind,' the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.”