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I Consider My Job [being A Musician] Is To Have A Little Idea And Nurture It And Put It In Some Form That Everybody Else Can Understand And Then Sort Of Pass It On. It's Really A Passing Through. In Other Words, You Receive And You Transmit.

-Keith Richards

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I Consider My Job

Keith Richards

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I Consider My Job [being A Musician] Is To Have A Little Idea And Nurture It And Put It In Some Form That Everybody Else Can Understand And Then Sort Of Pass It On. It's Really A Passing Through. In Other Words, You Receive And You Transmit.

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It's Basically Against The Whole Idea Of What Always Made Rock&roll Music Interesting To Me. I Thought It Was An Unassailable Outlet For Some Pure And Natural Expressions Of Rebellion. It Was One Channel You Could Take Without Havin' To Kiss Ass, You Know? And Right Now It Just Seems Like They're On A Big Daisy Chain, Each Kissin' Each Other's Asses.

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

[john] Belushi Was An Extreme Experience Even By My Standards.

Everybody Thinks You Reach A Certain Age And You're A Grownup, But It's Not True. Nobody Grows Up Until The Day They Croak.

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

The Public Library Is The Great Equaliser.

I've Got Nothing Against Daylight. I Don't Live Totally Nocturnally. Only When I Feel Like It. Which Is Most Of The Time.

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

George Jones Is A National Treasure And Should Be Treated Accordingly. A Unique Style So Often Emulated Even Inadvertently.

I Can Sustain The Impetus Over The Long Tours We Do Is By Feeding Off The Energy That We Get Back From An Audience. That's My Fuel. All I've Got Is This Burning Energy, Especially When I've Got A Guitar In My Hands.

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

If You Stay Up, You Get The Songs That Everyone Else Misses Because They're Asleep.

Most Guys I Know Are Assholes. I Have Some Great Asshole Friends, But That's Not The Point. Friendship Has Got Nothing To Do With That. It's Can You Hang, Can You Talk About This Without Any Feeling Of Distance Between You? Friendship Is The Diminishing Of Distance Between People. That's What Friendship Is, And To Me It's One Of The Most Important Things In The World.

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.

I Consider My Job [being A Musician] Is To Have A Little Idea And Nurture It And Put It In Some Form That Everybody Else Can Understand And Then Sort Of Pass It On. It's Really A Passing Through. In Other Words, You Receive And You Transmit.

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

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

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

Rap - So Many Words, So Little Said.

I Was Number 1 On The Who's Likely To Die List For 10 Years...i Was Really Disappointed When I Fell Off That List.

The Beatles Were Basically A Vocal Band.

I've Always Been Suspicious Of Tv, I've Always Found Music And Video To Be An Unhappy Marriage.

You Can't Accuse Me Of Anything I Haven't Already Confessed To.

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

The Big Rules Of Knife Fighting Are (a) Do Not Try It At Home, And (b) The Whole Point Is Never, Ever Use The Blade. It Is There To Distract Your Opponent. While He Stares At The Gleaming Steel, You Kick His Balls To Kingdom Come--he's All Yours. Just A Tip!

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.

I Mean, Give Me A Guitar, Give Me A Piano, Give Me A Broom And String, I Wouldn't Get Bored Anywhere.

Yes, I've Been Trepanned. That's Quite An Interesting Experience, Especially For My Brain Surgeon, Who Saw My Thoughts Flying Around In My Brain.

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

Another Thing To Do With The Blues Is How They Were Recorded. They Were Done On The Quick, And Some Of That Stuff Was Made On Wire, Not Even Tape, Let Alone Digital.

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.

My Life Is Full Of Broken Halos.

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.

Nobody Wants To Get Old, But Nobody Wants To Die Young Either.

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

Black And White

Some Things Get Better With Age. Like Me.

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.'

I'm Not Getting Old I'm Evolving.

There's Something Beautifully Friendly And Elevating About A Bunch Of Guys Playing Music Together. This Wonderful Little World That Is Unassailable. It's Really Teamwork, One Guy Supporting The Others, And It's All For One Purpose, And There's No Flies In The Ointment, For A While. And Nobody Conducting, It's All Up To You. It's Really Jazz__that's The Big Secret. Rock And Roll Ain't Nothing But Jazz With A Hard Backbeat.

Rock And Roll Ain't Nothing But Jazz With A Hard Backbeat.

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

Some Of My Most Outrageous Nights- I Can Only Believe Actually Happened Because Of Corroborating Evidence. No Wonder I'm Famous For Partying! The Ultimate Party- If It's Any Good- You Can't Remember It.

It's Great To Be Here. It's Great To Be Anywhere.

Music Is A Language That Doesn’t Speak In Particular Words. It Speaks In Emotions, And If It’s In The Bones, It’s In The Bones.

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.

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.

No Broken Hearts, No Broken Necks.

To Make A Rock'n'roll Record, Technology Is The Least Important Thing.

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.

One Minute I'm Standing At Ronnie Scott's Getting A Standing Ovation And The Next Minute, I'm On A Marble Slab

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 Personally Believe That Most People That Play An Instrument Would Be Able To Write A Few Songs Here And There. But They Say, "i Tried, I Can't Do It" And Give Up And Don't Try It Again; They Get Too Discouraged.

To Me, Life Is A Wild Animal. You Hope To Deal With It When It Leaps At You.

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

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

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.

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 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.

Music Works In Mysterious Ways. Once It Goes In You Have No Idea What It Can Do To You.

There Was A Knock On Our Dressing-room Door. Our Manager Shouted, 'keith! Ron! The Police Are Here!' Oh, Man, We Panicked, Flushed Everything Down The John. Then The Door Opened And It Was Stewart Copeland And Sting.

Everything They’d Been Brought Up Not To Do, They Could Do At A Rock-and-roll Show.

I Only Get Ill When I Give Up Drugs... I Don't Have A Drug Problem, I Have A Police Problem.

The Stones In A Club Is Still The Ultimate Rush.

Anything You Throw Yourself Into, You Better Get Yourself Out Of.

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

I Never Thought I Was Wasted, But I Probably Was.

The Only New Technology That Interests Me Is When It Sort Of Throws Me Back Soundwise. And I Can Think, "wow, That Means I Can Go Onstage And Sound Like Scotty Moore Now And Again!"

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?

I've Never Had A Problem With Drugs. I've Had Problems With The Police.

I Don't Encourage Anybody To Do What I Do, You Know? Why Should You? More For Me!

Rock N Roll Is Music From The Neck Down.

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

To A Musician Or Songwriter, Your Canvas Is Silence.

When You Are Growing Up There Are Two Institutional Places That Affect You Most Powerfully: The Church, Which Belongs To God, And The Public Library, Which Belongs To You.

I Don't Like To Go Into The Studio With All The Songs Worked Out And Planned Before Hand ... You've Got To Give The Band Something To Use Its Imagination On As Well. That Can Make A Very Ordinary Song Come Alive Into Something Totally Different ... The X-factor - So Important In Rock And Roll - Which Is The Feel.

One Of The Great Things About Songwrighting; It's Not An Intellectual Experience

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.

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.

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

Great Relationship

I'm An Unpure Purist, Something Like That.

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.

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.'

The Electric Guitar Was Vital In Helping What I've Achieved Where Would I Be Without It? Playing Awfully Quietly, For A Start.

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

Why Would You Want To Be Anything Else If You're Mick Jagger?

Treat Each Guitar Track-and Each Song-completely Different. For Example, If I'm Using A Certain Amp And Guitar On One Track, I'll Deliberately Use Something Else For The Next Tune Or Overdub.

There's A Demon In Me, And He's Still Around. Without The Dope, We Have A Bit More Of A Chat These Days.

Hey, We Just Enjoy It. I Think We Think We're Getting The Hang Of This Thing, You Know?

What Is It That Makes You Want To Write Songs? In A Way You Want To Stretch Yourself Into Other People’s Hearts. You Want To Plant Yourself There, Or At Least Get A Resonance, Where Other People Become A Bigger Instrument Than The One You’re Playing. It Becomes Almost An Obsession To Touch Other People. To Write A Song That Is Remembered And Taken To Heart Is A Connection, A Touching Of Bases. A Thread That Runs Through All Of Us. A Stab To The Heart. Sometimes I Think Songwriting Is About Tightening The Heartstrings As Much As Possible Without Bringing On A Heart Attack.

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

When You're 20, You Can't Imagine Being 30. When You're 30, You Can't Imagine Being 40. When You're 40, You Can't Imagine Being 100.

Preaching Is Tax Free. Very Little To Do With God, A Lot To Do With Money

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

When I Started, All I Wanted To Do Was Play Like Chuck (berry)

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.

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

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

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

You Didn't Know Whether Chuck Berry Was Black Or White - It Was Not A Concern.

It Might Appear That Nothing Is Happening, But That's Actually When It Really Happens.

In Fact, I Take The View That God, In His Infinite Wisdom, Didn't Bother To Spring For Two Joints - Heaven And Hell. They're The Same Place, But Heaven Is When You Get Everything You Want And You Meet Mummy And Daddy And Your Best Friends And You All Have A Hug And A Kiss And Play Your Harps. Hell Is The Same Place - No Fire And Brimstone - But They Just All Pass By And Don't See You. There's Nothing, No Recognition. You're Waving, “it's Me, Your Father,” But You're Invisible. You're On A Cloud, You've Got Your Harp, But You Can't Play With Nobody Because They Don't See You. That's Hell.

What Is Life But Playing With Time?

I'd Play Whenever I Could Get My Hands On An Electric Guitar; I Was Trying To Pick Up Rock'n'roll Riffs And Electric Blues - The Latest Muddy Waters. I'd Spend Hours And Hours On The Same Track, Back Again, And Back Again.

If You Don't Know The Blues... There's No Point In Picking Up The Guitar And Playing Rock And Roll Or Any Other Form Of Popular Music.

Guitar Is Easy, All It Takes Is 5 Fingers, 6 Strings And 1 A**hole

I Am Not Doing It Just For The Money Or For You.i Am Doing It For Me.

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

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.

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.

Poison's Not Bad. It's A Matter Of How Much.

[joking About The Length Of The Rolling Stones' Career] You Have The Sun, You Have The Moon, You Have The Air That You Breathe - And You Have The Rolling Stones!

The Only Things Mick And I Disagree About Is The Band, The Music And What We Do.

The Idea Of Retiring Is Like Killing Yourself. It's Almost Like Hari Kari. I Intend To Live To A 100 And Go Down In History.

Killing Yourself

If You Are Going To Get Wasted, Then Get Wasted Elegantly.

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

I'd Been An Expert At Taking Beatings. Then I Had A Lucky Break Where I Did A Bully In, By Total Sheer Luck. ... One Minute I Was The Mark, And With Just One Swift Move, I Put The Big Man In School Down. ... Once He Was Down, The Whole Atmosphere In The Schoolyard Changed. A Huge Cloud Seemed To Be Lifted From Me. ... I'd Never Been Aware The Cloud Was So Large.

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

I Wouldn't Warm To [chuck Berry] Even If I Was Cremated Next To Him.

When You're Supported By Millions All Over The World, You Can Either Go Nuts, Or Try To Feed Off The Goodwill.

Songwriting's A Weird Game.

True Friends. Hardest Thing To Find, But You Never Look For Them - They Found You ; You Just Grow Into Each Other

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.

You're Sitting With Some Guys, And You're Playing And You Go, "ooh, Yeah!" That Feeling Is Worth More Than Anything. 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. You're Elevated Because You're With A Bunch Of Guys That Want To Do The Same Thing As You. And When It Works, Baby, You've Got Wings. You Know You've Been Somewhere Most People Will Never Get; You've Been To A Special Place.

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

You've Got The Sun, You've Got The Moon, And You've Got The Rolling Stones.

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

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.

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

You Know, The Bbc Had Not Been Particularly Generous In Its Deliverance Of Blues And Esoteric Kinds Of Music.

I Like It Here In Austin. Anybody Got A Room?

The Thing About Being A Songwriter, Once You Realize You Are One, Is That To Provide Ammo, You Start To Become An Observer. ... You're Constantly On The Alert. That Faculty Gets Trained In You Over The Years: Observing People, How They React To One Another, Which In A Way Makes You Weirdly Distant. ... It's A Little Of Peeping Tom, Being A Song-writer.

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

Rock And Roll: Music For The Neck Downwards.

There's Just Certain Styles Of Playing That You Do Play In Your Own Way. Maybe It's In The Way Your Fingers Bend, For All I Know. And So Whenever You Pick Up The Guitar It's Not So Much The Sound Of The Instrument Itself, It's Like The Ting That You Add Onto It-the Attitude.

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

A Painter's Got A Canvas. The Writer's Got Reams Of Empty Paper. A Musician Has Silence.

I Occasionally Borrow Pot From My Kids. They Do A Little Weed Occasionally. 'here, Dad' — Or More Likely, 'dad, Have You Got Any?'

It's Good To Be Anywhere.

We All Have Our Own Personal Laboratories. Life Is An Experiment, And It's Just A Matter Of Getting The Alchemical Or Chemical Combination Right.

It Made Me Sick - My Name's Keith Richards. It Hardly Makes It Against Howlin' Wolf Or Muddy Waters, Does It? On My First Guitar I Had Boy Blue Written - Just Pathetic. But That Was As Good As I Got At The Time.

You See, To Me, The Art Of Music Is Listening To It, Not Playing It. The Real Art Of It Is Hearing It.

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.

I Never Plan Anything, Which Is Probably The Difference Between Mick And Myself. Mick Needs To Know What He's Gonna Do Tomorrow And I'm Just Happy To Wake Up To See Who's Hanging Around. Mick's Rock And I'm Roll.

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

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.

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

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