Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
I just want to feel as much as I can, it’s what soul is all about.
Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.
Freedom is just another word for when you have NOTHING left to lose.
You are what you settle for. You are only as much as you settle for.
Why should I hold back now and sound mediocre, just so I can sound mediocre twenty years from now?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.
You can feel all things at once, so why not wear all things at once?
I always wanted to be an artist, whatever that was, like other chicks want to be stewardesses. I read. I painted. I thought.
Don’t go looking for Mr. Right. Look for Mr. Right Now.
You are what you settle for.
You got to get it while you can.
I got treated very badly in Texas. They don’t treat beatniks too good in Texas. Port Arthur people thought I was a beatnik, though they’d never seen one and neither had I.
Hippies believe the world could be a better place. Beatniks believe things aren’t going to get better and say the hell with it, stay stoned and have a good time.
I think I think too much. That’s why I drink!
I’d rather not sing than sing quiet.
I started singing rhythmically, and now I’m learning from Otis Redding to push a song instead of just sliding over it.
You know why we’re stuck with the myth that only black people have soul? Because white people don’t let themselves feel things.
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
I’m tired of all these hippie jack-offs.