Bo Diddley

Don’t let your mouth write no check that your tail can’t cash.

Audiences are smart. They are not going to come out to see you unless you are honest.

I used to play – when I first started trying to be professional, I disk jockey from 1949 to 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee, and I was quite popular there as a disk jockey.

I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused.

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

The deeper you get into the music allows the ability to appreciate art and all other forms of expression.

Silence is what makes music sexy. I just move blocks of silence around. The notes are an afterthought.

There is no truer truth obtainable by man than comes of music.

People love us when we play what we want to play but we’re starving.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

I wanted to make somebody feel like Coltrane made me feel.

For me, the main thing is spontaneity and taking chances.

I could see the blues was about survival.

There is two kinds of music, the good and the bad. I play the good kind.

Musicians have the intimacy of bringing two people together and the aesthetic, romantic transference.

I think that those elements – light and sound – are beyond democratic. They’re into the creative part of life.