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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.

-Keith Richards

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What Is It That

Keith Richards

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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.

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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.

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.

No Broken Hearts, No Broken Necks.

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

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

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

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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.

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.

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

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

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

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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 Never Thought I Was Wasted, But I Probably Was.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rap - So Many Words, So Little Said.

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

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

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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.

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

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Songwriting's A Weird Game.

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

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