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About Myself I Have No Great Illusions. I Know What I Am. I Know What I'm Good At. I Know What I Ain't. I'm Always Hoping To Surprise Myself. But I Do Have A Love Of Music And I Do Love To Communicate It, And That's The Best I Can Do, Really. And I Can Raise A Good Family, Too.

-Keith Richards

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About Myself I Have

Keith Richards

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About Myself I Have No Great Illusions. I Know What I Am. I Know What I'm Good At. I Know What I Ain't. I'm Always Hoping To Surprise Myself. But I Do Have A Love Of Music And I Do Love To Communicate It, And That's The Best I Can Do, Really. And I Can Raise A Good Family, Too.

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We Do What We Want To Do. We Write Songs. We Try Not To Repeat Ourselves Too Much. We Have Our Own Sound And Our Own Way Of Doing Things. Up Until Now It Has Always Been Enjoyable. None Of The Members Have Ever Got To The Point Where They Don't Want To Be Involved In It ... It's Not Entirely Possible For Me To Stand Back And Look At The Rolling Stones Because Being A Part Of It You Can't. I Wish That I Could Just Sit In The Audience For One Night And See The Show. Everyone In The Band Has Said That At Some Point. But Then You Wouldn't Be Seeing The Whole Band. And That's The Problem With That.

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There's A Certain Moment When You Realize That You've Actually Just Left The Planet For A Bit And That Nobody Can Touch You. . .when It Works, Baby, You've Got Wings.

Everybody's Got A Different Way Of Telling A Story - And Has Different Stories To Tell.

Art Is The Last Thing I'm Worried About When I'm Writing A Song. As Far As I'm Concerned, Art Is Just Short For 'arthur.'

Some Things Get Better With Age. Like Me.

Songwriting's A Weird Game.

To Me, The Main Thing About Living On This Planet Is To Know Who The Hell You Are And Be Real About It. That's The Reason I'm Still Alive.

If You've Gotta Think About Being Cool, You Ain't Cool.

The Electric Guitar Meant That You Could Have A Band With A Drummer And A Couple Of Guitars. And That Put A Lot Of Horn Players Out Of Work.

I Don't Think Rock N' Roll Songwriters Should Worry About Art. I Don't Think It Comes Into It...as Far As I'm Concerned, Art Is Just Short For Arthur.

To Me, As Long As We've Known Each Other, I've Always Thought Mick's Most Brilliant Thing Was That He Could Work In An Area Two Foot Square And Give A Very Exciting Performance.

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A Gut-string Classical Spanish Guitar, A Sweet, Lovely Little Lady. The Smell Of It. Even Now, To Open A Guitar Case, When It's An Old Wooden Guitar, I Could Crawl In And Close The Lid.

I Mean Some Doctor Told Me I Had Six Months To Live And I Went To Their Funeral.

What Muddy Waters Did For Us Is What We Should Do For Others. It's The Old Thing, What You Want Written On Your Tombstone As A Musician: 'he Passed It On.'

Rap - So Many Words, So Little Said.

And Then I Think We Realized, Like Any Young Guys, That Blues Are Not Learned In A Monastery. You've Got To Go Out There And Get Your Heart Broke And Then Come Back And Then You Can Sing The Blues.

I Never Sleep Alone. If There Is No One To Sleep Next To, I'll Sleep Next To A Stuffed Animal. It Makes Me Feel Secure And Safe. It's A Little Embarrassing To Admit It; I'm An Old Man Now. It's Important To Me Though.

I Don't Have A Problem With Drugs, I Have A Problem With Policemen.

When I Listen To What I Did Under The Influence - 10 Years Of Work - I Don't Think It Either Enhanced Or Impaired Me. It Didn't Have That Much To Do With It.

Everyone Talks About Rock These Days; The Problem Is They Forget About The Roll.

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And It Was A Very, Very Fruitful And Great Relationship Between The Stones And The Beatles. It Was Very, Very Friendly.

Great Relationship

The Rock's Easy, But The Roll Is Another Thing.

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I'm Free Of Hypochondria-- Although I've Got Everything Else.

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If You're Cool, You Don't Know Nothing About It. It Just Is, Or You Ain't.

It's Called The Mysterious Rhythm Of Life, ... I Can't Quite Account For It. It's Probably An Addiction, Quite Honestly. I Need That Shot Of Stage Every Two Or Three Years.

If You Say I'm Great, Thank You Very Much. But I Know What I Am. I Could Be Better, Man, You Know?

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Let Me Be Clear About This. I Don't Have A Drug Problem. I Have A Police Problem.

I Looked Upon Myself, In A Sort Of Romantic And Silly Way, As Like A Laboratory.

I Was In Awe Sometimes Listening To Mick Taylor . Everything Was There In His Playing - The Melodic Touch, A Beautiful Sustain And A Way Of Reading A Song.

To Me, My Biggest Fear Is Getting A Big Head, And That Is When I Get The Hammer. Because It's Very Easy In This Game To Believe You're Something Special.

I Read The Bible Sometimes, But It Bores Me To Death. I Just Want To Know What Other People Find So Bloody Fascinating.

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From The 12th Congressional District Hopeful William Jefferson Clinton During The Nixon Investigations. I Wanted To Share Some Information I've Turned Up Regarding Two Of Your Clinton Quotes.

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What Interested Me About Chuck Berry Was The Way He Could Step Out Of The Rhythm Part With Such Ease, Throwing In A Nice, Simple Riff, And Then Drop Straight Into The Feel Of It Again. We Used To Play A Lot More Rhythm Stuff. We'd Do Away With The Differences Between Lead And Rhythm Guitar. You Can't Go Into A Shop And Ask For A "lead Guitar". You're A Guitar Player, And You Play A Guitar.

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If You're Going To Kick Authority In The Teeth, You Might As Well Use Both Feet.

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But I'm Not Here Just To Make Records And Money. I'm Here To Say Something And To Touch Other People, Sometimes In A Cry Of Desperation: "do You Know This Feeling?

Before Elvis, Everything Was In Black And White. Then Came Elvis. Zoom, Glorious Technicolor.

Black And White

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Music Is A Necessity. After Food, Air, Water And Warmth, Music Is The Next Necessity Of Life.

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What's The Big Deal About Still Working? Retirement Age Is Sixty-five, And That's At A Normal Job - And I Ain't There Yet.

Love Has Sold More Songs Than You've Had Hot Dinners.

Its Called A Playground, But Its Nearer To A Battlefield. It Can Be Brutal

It's Really Good To Be Here And As I Always Say, It's Really Good To Be Anywhere!

If You're Gonna Get Wasted, Get Wasted Elegantly.

There's No Substitute For Live Work To Keep A Band Together.

Well, I'm Not Putting Death On The Agenda. I Don't Want To See My Old Friend Lucifer Just Yet. He's The Guy I'm Gonna See, Isn't It? I'm Not Going To The Other Place, Let's Face It.

My Father. I Snorted My Father. He Was Cremated And I Couldn't Resist Grinding Him Up With A Little Bit Of Blow.

I Don't Know If People In New York Recognize Me Or Not. I'm Not Really Conscious Of It. If Somebody Stops Me, Then I Suddenly Realize That People Are Looking At Me, But Other Times They May Be Doing It And I Don't Even Know Because I'm Engrossed In Something Else.

But I've Always Felt Very Comfortable On Stage, Even If I Screw Up. It Always Felt Like A Dog, This Is My Turf, Piss Around It. While I'm Here, Nothing Else Can Happen. All I Can Do Is Screw Up. Otherwise, Have A Good Time.

We Age Not By Holding On To Youth, But By Letting Ourselves Grow And Embracing Whatever Youthful Parts Remain.

Whatever Side I Take, I Know Well That I Will Be Blamed.

I've Never Had My Hair Cut By Anybody, I Do It All Myself.

It's A Privilege Just To Wake Up To A New Day.

I'm All For A Quiet Life. I Just Didn't Get One.

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My Life Is Full Of Broken Halos.

You Don't Start To Play Your Guitar Thinking You're Going To Be Running An Organisation That Will Maybe Generate Millions.

I Look For Ambiguity When I'm Writing Because Life Is Ambiguous.

To Me, It's Important To Prove That This Isn't Just Teenage Kids' S**t And You Should Feel Embarrassed When You're Over Forty And Still Doing It.

You Don't Find A Style. A Style Finds You

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Fame Has Killed More Very Talented Guys Than Drugs. Jimi Hendrix Didn't Die Of An Overdose, He Died Of Fame.

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I Achieved Everything I Wanted To Achieve By Being In The Rolling Stones And Making Records.

Rock N Roll Is Music From The Neck Down.

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