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The blues is not the creation of a crushed-spirited people. It is the product of a forward-looking, upward-striving people.

When you are through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on.

The blues brings you back into the fold. The blues isn't about the blues, it's about we have all had the blues and we are all in this together.

Blues is a natural fact, is something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it you don't have it. Young people have forgotten to cry the blues. Now they talk and get lawyers and things.

You don't have to live the blues to play the blues.

Sure, I get the blues. But what I try to do, is apply joy to the blues, you know? I don't know if it's a technique, or just being bent that way, being raised by the folks I was raised by.

I had always intended to make a living out of playing blues. But I never admitted it to myself. I don't suppose I could have given a logical reason for it ever becoming possible to do so.

The blues comes right back to a person's feelings, to his daily activities in life. But rich people don't know nothing about the blues, please believe me.

The blues is life itself.

A lot of people relate me to the blues but I don't think it's a hindrance at this point. I've been doing it long enough that I can do different things and be accepted.