Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I'd go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I'd sing and play.

Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway.

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.

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

My mom and dad passed away from cancer. Within nine months, I lost both of my folks. Immediately after that, I had a horrible betrayal where my brother, who worked for me, stole a lot of my money. He's in jail now.

I need to make money, but I don't want to be another guy selling his McDonald's to the pop market.

Hungary has a moral debt to the Jews that it helped send to death camps thirty years after the First World War.

To be honest with you, I've been dying to do a nice indie feature - just something about a regular guy with a big quirk or a big emotional problem. Just something that's a straightforward, classic indie film. It sounds weird, but it's been easier for me to get cast in big tentpole films than the indie community. I'd love to do that.