I didn't connect with the kids. I was in the studio. I never saw the kids. I hoped they liked it, of course. And then I'd go write some more. And then I'd go buy me a home. Very American.

Respect isn't enough. You've got to have a proprietary interest.

The Rolling Stones... The Rolling Stones have a reflection to my music; I wouldn't deny it. I think that's honest.

My father married once. I married once. This is a conviction of ours. This is the way we grew up.

Rather than have joy, I would rather be absent of pain.

I don't want the bottom, so I have to sacrifice the top.

Elvis' songs will always be there, and I hope mine will be after I'm gone.

One of my realizations is that if you revel over joy, you're going to ache over pain and get killed over hurt. Your span of feelings are going to go just as far one way as the other.

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

I have lots of ambition!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.'

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.

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.

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