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.
— Keith Richards
I've never tried to achieve anything. I achieved everything I wanted to achieve by being in the Rolling Stones and making records.
You know, the BBC had not been particularly generous in its deliverance of blues and esoteric kinds of music.
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.
The Beatles were basically a vocal band.
You get onstage and make other people feel happy. Make them feel good.
I mean some doctor told me I had six months to live and I went to their funeral.
You have the sun, you have the moon, you have the air that you breathe - and you have the Rolling Stones!
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.
You've got the sun, you've got the moon, and you've got the Rolling Stones.
I never thought I was wasted, but I probably was.
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.
There's no substitute for live work to keep a band together.
Let me be clear about this. I don't have a drug problem. I have a police problem.
I have no idea what the audience makes of me.
I've never had a problem with drugs. I've had problems with the police.
Songwriting's a weird game. I never intended to become one - I fell into this by mistake, and I can't get out of it. It fascinates me. I like to point out the rawer points of life.
You didn't know whether Chuck Berry was black or white - it was not a concern.
When you're supported by millions all over the world, you can either go nuts, or try to feed off the goodwill.
Everybody's got a different way of telling a story - and has different stories to tell.
Songwriting's a weird game.
I achieved everything I wanted to achieve by being in the Rolling Stones and making records.
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?
It's an addiction... and addiction is something I should know something about.
I only get ill when I give up drugs.
It's great to be here. It's great to be anywhere.
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.
The Stones in a club is still the ultimate rush.
I've always been suspicious of TV, I've always found music and video to be an unhappy marriage.
Good music comes out of people playing together, knowing what they want to do and going for it. You have to sweat over it and bug it to death. You can't do it by pushing buttons and watching a TV screen.
If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use both feet.
Give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string; I wouldn't get bored anywhere.
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.
This is the rock 'n' roll life, and you had to invent it as you went along. There was no textbook to say how you operate this machinery.
And it was a very, very fruitful and great relationship between the Stones and The Beatles. It was very, very friendly.
I mean, give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string, I wouldn't get bored anywhere.
I've never had my hair cut by anybody, I do it all myself.
I don't trust doctors. It's not to say there ain't some good ones, but on a general level, no, I wouldn't trust 'em at all.
You don't start to play your guitar thinking you're going to be running an organisation that will maybe generate millions.
Hey, we just enjoy it. I think we think we're getting the hang of this thing, you know?
It's good to be anywhere.
Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.
To make a rock'n'roll record, technology is the least important thing.
The only things Mick and I disagree about is the band, the music and what we do.
I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous.
Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll.
