"You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar in your shoes, and still mess up."

"I don't need no one to tell me how to sing. I just open my mouth and everything comes out."

"I'd rather be a junkie than a square."

"I never had a lesson in my life. I never learned to read music. I can't read music. I play by ear, and I sing by ear."

"I'm not afraid to die. I've been dead for years."