“I have to have the 'umph.' I've got to feel it, because if it's not getting thro…” — Janis Joplin

I can't talk about my singing. I'm inside it. How can you describe something you're inside of?

Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.

You know why we're stuck with the myth that only black people have soul? Because white people don't let themselves feel things.

Texas is OK if you want to settle down and do your own thing quietly, but it's not for outrageous people, and I was always outrageous.