A lot of solos I hear sound so incredible, but they sound like somebody practicing. They sound a bit soulless -- fiery, but at the same time, lacking in spirit and soul.

The fun that I've had needs to be seen on the screen. I like the thought of a bunch of people laughing at what I laughed at -- because my life is surreal, completely wacko.

Some are skeptical. My mom thought the guitar was going to fizzle out in two weeks, that it was just a fad-and that was in 1958.

I thought there couldn't be a better backdrop for some kind of powerful music than a big orchestra. My wish to hear how a guitar would sound in front of an orchestra has always been there.

I was going to write an autobiography once. I started writing it, and then I thought, 'No, let them dig around when I'm dead.'

I play the way I do because it allows me to come up with the sickest sounds possible. That's the point now isn't it?

If you were to plot my success or failure, it goes, it very seldom stays on a high plateau.

I couldn't not play a Les Paul guitar. Les always used to point to my Strat and say, 'Why do you have that piece of crap around your neck?' I'd say, 'Yours are too heavy. I had to drill holes in it.'

I do a very poor man's pedal steel on the Stratocaster.

After I saw Jimmy Hendrix play, I just went home and wondered what the f*** I was going to do with my life.

My first wife said, 'It's either that
guitar or me,' you know -- and I give
you three guesses which one went.

I don't care about the rules, if I don't break the rules at least 10x every song then I'm not doing my job.

I've never stuck around long enough to know if anyone would miss me. That's rock 'n' roll, though. Here today, gone tomorrow.

When you get guys coming up to you in clubs or restaurants or somewhere, and they say how much they've enjoyed your playing on records, then that pays off dividends every day; every time they say it, you think, 'I'm glad I did that.'

A lunatic lifestyle on the road doesn't permit you to get too hip to stuff as you should.

I wanted to be in Rolling Stone number two with a tomorrow feel to it, like an experimental Rolling Stones with Jagger singing.

I like the wildness of Buddy Guy.

When they said there was gonna be about 100,000 people at Woodstock, and it went up to 200,000, I just blanked off and thought, 'I don't want to do this.' If they're filming it, it's too nerve-racking.

When Jazz broke through in England, I remember sneaking to listen on the radio much to my parent's disapproval.

London is a dead duck, as far as innovative new music is concerned, unless you want to have your head blown off with some outrageous, rubbish, pounding dance music.