"To sing blues, you've got to be able to, ... be willing to, feel things."

“Official website by the Joplin estate”

“Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends”

“Music’s for grooving man, and music’s not for puttin’ yourself through bad changes, y’know? I mean, you don’t have to go take anybody’s shit, man, just to like music, y’know what I mean? You don’t. So... so if you’re getting’ more shit than you deserve, you know what to do about it man. Y’know, it’s just music. Music’s... music's s’posed to be different than that.”

“Joplin, Janis Lyn" in The Handbook of Texas Online”

“Fourteen heart attacks and he had to die in my week. In MY week.”

“Tomorrow never happens. It's all the same fucking day, man.”