Quotes from Chuck Berry

That's the misconceptions that people have, that Chuck Berry went to jail. They're just totally wrong. It might have said something in the large papers in the bigger city headlines and things. But, you take a look at any of the local papers, and you will see that I was acquitted. I never went to jail.

What kind of shorts I wear has nothing to do with music.

I would sing the blues if I had the blues.

I don't want the bottom, so I have to sacrifice the top.

I've written songs on everything. Menus. Napkins. Little pieces of paper.

People don't want to see 17 pieces in neckties. They wanna see some jeans, some gettin' down, and some wigglin'.

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.

I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint.

It's gotta be rock and roll music, if you wanna dance with me.

Music is music; you can't change rock and say well this is punk rock and this is acid rock or rockabilly.

Music is an important part of our culture and record stores play a vital part in keeping the power of music alive

Prejudice doesn't make me mad. It just - I guess 'pisses me off' is the word.

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.

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.

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.

The music played most around St. Louis was country-western and swing. Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of the country stuff on our predominantly black audience. After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff.

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.

Of the five most important things in life, health is first, education or knowledge is second, and wealth is third. I forget the other two.

Praise doesn't mean anything to me. I don't judge myself.

Science and religion are both the same thing. They're there; they're life. If it's not science, it's not a fact.

What the heck is a king? I'm a cog in the wheel.

Music should be made to make people forget their problems, if only for a short while.

Had I been pushed like Colonel Parker pushed Elvis, had I been a white boy like Elvis, sure, it would have been different.

People said I was king, but I was never king, and I say I'm the prime minister.