Don't let the same dog bite you twice.

In a Toyota, the cops don't think about stopping you so much.

It's amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.

Charlie Christian played amplified guitar with Benny Goodman's quartet. He was the greatest guitar player that ever was. But he never looked up from the guitar. But I put a little dance to it. They appreciate seein' something along with hearin' something.

Rock's so good to me. Rock is my child and my grandfather.

I just feel I got my inspiration, education and all from others that came before me. And I added my... I don't even know if I added anything. I played what they played, and it sounded different, I guess.

I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint.

Of the five most important things in life, health is first, education or knowledge is second, and wealth is third. I forget the other two.

I would sing the blues if I had the blues.

I'm thankful for each and every day. We never know when time is up.

I directed my music to the teen-agers. I was 30 years old when I did 'Maybellene.' My school days had long been over when I did 'School Day,' but I was thinking of them.

Praise doesn't mean anything to me. I don't judge myself.

If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance. That's what rock and roll is all about.

I love poetry. I love rhyming. Do you know, there are poets who don't rhyme? Shakespeare did not rhyme most of the time, and that's why I do not like him.

I should have been a son of Einstein.

What the heck is a king? I'm a cog in the wheel.

The media dresses things up. There's a lot of inaccuracy.

The Man Upstairs is taking care of me.

I made records for people who would buy them. No color, no ethnic, no political - I don't want that, never did.

The Big Band Era is my era. People say, 'Where did you get your style from?' I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That's the best way I could explain it.

A song is a song. But there are some songs, ah, some songs are the greatest. The Beatles song 'Yesterday.' Listen to the lyrics.

That's all there was in our house: poetry and choir rehearsal and duets and so forth; I listened to Dad and Mother discuss things about poetry and delivery and voice and diction - I don't think anyone could know how much it really means.

My first job at Gleason's Bar in Cleveland was $800 a week, when I was making $92 a week with overtime at the automobile plant.

I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters, people who really had it hard. In our house, we had food on the table. We were doing well compared to many. So I concentrated on this fun and frolic, these novelties.

Music is science. Everything is science. Because science is truth.

It's not me to toot my horn. The minute you toot your horn, it seems like society will try and disconnect your battery. And if you do not toot your horn, they'll try their darnedest to give you a horn to toot, or say that you should have a horn.

A contract is an ask game, and if it asks for an hour, and I submit to an hour, then it's an hour. When I look at a contract, I look at the obligation - where, when, how long, the compensation. If I agree to it, that's the way it is. I have an obligation. They have an obligation.

Had I been pushed like Colonel Parker pushed Elvis, had I been a white boy like Elvis, sure, it would have been different.

Music should be made to make people forget their problems, if only for a short while.

In a way, I feel it might be ill-mannered to try and top myself. The music I play is a ritual. Something that matters to people in a special way. I wouldn't want to interfere with that.

In the Fifties, there were certain places we couldn't ride on the bus, and now there is a possibility of a black man being in the White House. You have to feel good about it.

You know, your ears record. You might can sing a song once you hear it.

Rock 'n' roll accepted me and paid me, even though I loved the big bands... I went that way because I wanted a home of my own. I had a family. I had to raise them. Let's don't leave out the economics. No way.

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.

Science and religion are both the same thing. They're there; they're life. If it's not science, it's not a fact.

If the people in the audience are talking, you're being ignored. If the people are gazing at you, you've got something they want to hear.

You don't just go to the studio and say, 'I'm going to write a hit.' It becomes a hit when people like your compositions.

My dad was the cause of me being in show business. He was not only in poetry but in acting a bit. He was Mordecai in the play 'A Dream of Queen Esther.'

The music played most around St. Louis was country-western and swing. Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of the country stuff on our predominantly black audience. After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff.

It amazes me when I hear people say, 'I want to go out and find out who I am.' I always knew who I was. I was going to be famous if it killed me.

That's the misconceptions that people have, that Chuck Berry went to jail. They're just totally wrong. It might have said something in the large papers in the bigger city headlines and things. But, you take a look at any of the local papers, and you will see that I was acquitted. I never went to jail.

My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is worn. And my lungs are going fast.

I've written songs on everything. Menus. Napkins. Little pieces of paper.

I eat meat daily. I'm not Jewish. I'm not Arabic. What's the kind of person that doesn't eat meat? That's right - I'm not a vegetarian.

If I wasn't a musician, I'd take up the law. They are the rottenest, wealthiest people in America.

There had to be a market in order for you to be successful in a business. The market had to need your business, or the product of it.

If you're going to be mad, at least let the people know what you're mad about.

I used to work at Kroger's. When the store opened, you were there. When I worked in an automobile plant, you punched in. So it showed if you were a minute late. If you have a paid job, you show up.

I have lots of ambition!

I wanted to be a comedian. And I did that so much in high school, I couldn't get a girlfriend.