I want people to look at a checkerboard and think of me!

I want my flowers while I'm alive.

Besides, at 62 years old I look like I'm about 27.

I compare the Twist to the electric light, The Twist is me, and I'm it. I'm the electric light.

Homey don't quit. What else are you gonna do? It's like those guys in the cartoon they get up in the morning, check the clock and fight all day and after it's over they check the clock and go home. That's how it goes.

God's got something for me. I have faith it'll be OK.

Everybody in the '80s, well, we hate rap. Now, the biggest rapper in the world... Eminem. Rap's a black thing.

Ever see a little kid walking around talking to himself? I'm the same way.

Dancing, apart to music with a beat, is my legacy.

Before I got in this business I was in the chicken business.

What turns me on is to walk into a sold-out venue. The audiences are so much the same as they were in the '60s. It's just an amazing thing. I can't explain it, but I hope it never stops.

I'm just grateful to be on this planet. I have no enemies that I know of. I'm just the guy who makes happy.

It takes a real soldier to stay in the music industry and live off the things that have been put before me and be able to survive all this time because it has not been easy.

My outlet is my music, and it's been this way since I was 4 years old.