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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.

-Keith Richards

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You're Sitting With Some

Keith Richards

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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I'm Not Getting Old I'm Evolving.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

The Stones In A Club Is Still The Ultimate Rush.

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

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.'

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

[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!

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

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

The Public Library Is The Great Equaliser.

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

Rock N Roll Is Music From The Neck Down.

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.

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

I'm An Unpure Purist, Something Like That.

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

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

To A Musician Or Songwriter, Your Canvas Is Silence.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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'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.

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.

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

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

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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.

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.

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

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

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

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Some Things Get Better With Age. Like Me.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Songwriting's A Weird Game.

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.

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.

No Broken Hearts, No Broken Necks.

My Life Is Full Of Broken Halos.

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.

It's Good To Be Anywhere.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Great Relationship

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Black And White

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