I'll sit around and play my guitar; that's how I write tunes.

I picked all the tunes before I went to Memphis, and the band was all set. Willie Mitchell is an arranger like I am, and he let me do what I had to do.

I was staying with my sister and messing around with the guitar every day for my own amusement. Then she took me around and introduced me to Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, and the first time I saw that onstage, it inspired me to play. I thought that was the world.

It's wonderful to be able to sit down and write a play.

I write for what's left of the eight-year-old still rattling around inside my head.

Nobody can tell you how the blues feel unless they have the blues. We all take it differently.