I added and deleted according to the audiences' response to different gestures, and chose songs to build an act that would constantly stimulate my audience.
— Chuck Berry
The first thing I heard was spiritual music, which was imbedded. The second thing I heard was swing. And shortly, along with that, I began to hear the blues. And then I began to hear Latin music. Each one left its mark.
Everything I wrote about wasn't about me, but about the people listening.
I'm thankful for each and every day. We never know when time is up.
It's not me to toot my horn. The minute you toot your horn, it seems like society will try and disconnect your battery. And if you do not toot your horn, they'll try their darnedest to give you a horn to toot, or say that you should have a horn.
Listening to Nat Cole prompted me to sing sentimental songs with distinct diction.
Remember that my view, the only true view I can see with, is through the black eyes that I have.
Chuck Berry doesn't give interviews.
In a Toyota, the cops don't think about stopping you so much.
People don't want to see 17 pieces in neckties. They wanna see some jeans, some gettin' down, and some wigglin'.
The Rolling Stones... The Rolling Stones have a reflection to my music; I wouldn't deny it. I think that's honest.
Rather than have joy, I would rather be absent of pain.
One of my realizations is that if you revel over joy, you're going to ache over pain and get killed over hurt. Your span of feelings are going to go just as far one way as the other.
I have lots of ambition!
If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance. That's what rock and roll is all about.
If I wasn't a musician, I'd take up the law. They are the rottenest, wealthiest people in America.
I've written songs on everything. Menus. Napkins. Little pieces of paper.
The Man Upstairs is taking care of me.
The media dresses things up. There's a lot of inaccuracy.
I always want to play the songs that people want to hear.
My first job at Gleason's Bar in Cleveland was $800 a week, when I was making $92 a week with overtime at the automobile plant.
What the heck is a king? I'm a cog in the wheel.
People said I was king, but I was never king, and I say I'm the prime minister.
I made records for people who would buy them. No color, no ethnic, no political - I don't want that, never did.
In the Fifties, there were certain places we couldn't ride on the bus, and now there is a possibility of a black man being in the White House. You have to feel good about it.
There has been a great laziness in my soul. Lots of days I could write songs, but I could also take my $400 and play the slot machines at the riverfront casino.
I didn't connect with the kids. I was in the studio. I never saw the kids. I hoped they liked it, of course. And then I'd go write some more. And then I'd go buy me a home. Very American.
My father married once. I married once. This is a conviction of ours. This is the way we grew up.
I don't want the bottom, so I have to sacrifice the top.
I just feel I got my inspiration, education and all from others that came before me. And I added my... I don't even know if I added anything. I played what they played, and it sounded different, I guess.
I used to work at Kroger's. When the store opened, you were there. When I worked in an automobile plant, you punched in. So it showed if you were a minute late. If you have a paid job, you show up.
If you're going to be mad, at least let the people know what you're mad about.
Music is science. Everything is science. Because science is truth.
My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is worn. And my lungs are going fast.
The world has done nothing to me that I haven't done with the world.
What kind of shorts I wear has nothing to do with music.
I'm thankful for performing as long as I am allowed.
I think my interviews were much better than what some of the writers wrote. I just wanted the truth out.
My 12th was my most Christian and most boring year of my life. Try as I did, day after day, to cling to righteousness, I was washed down in suds of sinful surroundings.
Had I been pushed like Colonel Parker pushed Elvis, had I been a white boy like Elvis, sure, it would have been different.
I should have been a son of Einstein.
I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters, people who really had it hard. In our house, we had food on the table. We were doing well compared to many. So I concentrated on this fun and frolic, these novelties.
Maybe it is true what they say, that playing these Chuck Berry songs is easy. But try singing them. The words come out hard, like bullets.
Respect isn't enough. You've got to have a proprietary interest.
I directed my music to the teen-agers. I was 30 years old when I did 'Maybellene.' My school days had long been over when I did 'School Day,' but I was thinking of them.
Elvis' songs will always be there, and I hope mine will be after I'm gone.
I wanted to be a comedian. And I did that so much in high school, I couldn't get a girlfriend.
Music should be made to make people forget their problems, if only for a short while.
There had to be a market in order for you to be successful in a business. The market had to need your business, or the product of it.
I eat meat daily. I'm not Jewish. I'm not Arabic. What's the kind of person that doesn't eat meat? That's right - I'm not a vegetarian.
