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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.

-Keith Richards

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I'd Been An Expert

Keith Richards

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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.

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

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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.

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

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I'm Not Getting Old I'm Evolving.

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.

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

What Is Life But Playing With Time?

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.

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

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

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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.

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!"

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

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

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.

Songwriting's A Weird Game.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

My Life Is Full Of Broken Halos.

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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.

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

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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 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.

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

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I'm An Unpure Purist, Something Like That.

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

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Killing Yourself

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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.

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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.

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

Black And White

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

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[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!

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.

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

The Public Library Is The Great Equaliser.

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.

No Broken Hearts, No Broken Necks.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Rap - So Many Words, So Little Said.

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.'

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Great Relationship

Rock And Roll: Music For The Neck Downwards.

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