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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.

-Keith Richards

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It's Basically Against The

Keith Richards

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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.

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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.

It's Good To Be Anywhere.

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

Some Things Get Better With Age. Like Me.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

To A Musician Or Songwriter, Your Canvas Is Silence.

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!

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

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

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.

[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!

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.'

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.

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.

The Stones In A Club Is Still The Ultimate Rush.

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.

Rock And Roll: Music For The Neck Downwards.

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.

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.

Songwriting's A Weird Game.

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.

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

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 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

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

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

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?

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 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.

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!"

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Broken Hearts, No Broken Necks.

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

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.

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

I'm Not Getting Old I'm Evolving.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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My Life Is Full Of Broken Halos.

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

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.

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

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

Black And White

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

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

The Beatles Were Basically A Vocal Band.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Rap - So Many Words, So Little Said.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

I'm An Unpure Purist, Something Like That.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 Ain't Nothing But Jazz With A Hard Backbeat.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Rock N Roll Is Music From The Neck Down.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Public Library Is The Great Equaliser.

What Is Life But Playing With Time?

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

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.

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

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