I always believed in the music we did and that's why it was uncompromising.

I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.

I don't think the critics could understand what we were doing.

Almost the moment he died, they put him in Playboy as one of the greatest drummers, which he was - there's no doubt about it. There's never been anybody since. He's one of the greatest drummers that ever lived.

I'm just looking for an angel with a broken wing.

I always felt if we were going in to do an album, there should already be a lot of structure already made up so we could get on with that and see what else happened.

But to put out a greatest hits on one CD was totally impossible, I just couldn't do it. The best compromise was to put out two CDs - Early Days - which is what it is - and Latter Days.

I may not believe in myself, but I believe in what I'm doing.

I always believed in the music we did and that's why it was uncompromising.

My vocation is more in composition really than anything else - building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army.

'Boogie Chillen',' by John Lee Hooker - that is a riff.

'Communication Breakdown' - it was punchy and direct, with a real attitude that was different to other bands going around.

Because Led Zeppelin weren't having to worry about doing singles, each time we went in to record, it was a body of work for an album. So you could get the shift and the movement forwards as opposed to having to be rooted back to a single that might have been done a year ago.

Because somebody plays guitar, why does it mean they need a singer? Because people already have this image of things? No, I'll put my music together, then think about whether I need to embellish it with a singer.

Because we spent so much time in the States in the beginning, we weren't able to do so much in England. It was slower catching up. And we didn't have radio here like what was called underground radio over there. So we got these little slots on the BBC.

Certainly, as a guitarist, I was aware of descending chromatic lines and arpeggios long before 1968.

Every album that I've attempted, I suppose, has been different - it's bound to be.

Every musician wants to do something which will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did it with 'Stairway to Heaven.'

From meeting Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones, teaming up, rehearsing, playing selected gigs outside of Britain, coming back into Olympic Studios to record the first album, and then going to America, which we crack open like a nut with the debut record - all that happened, literally, within months.

From the first album, Led Zeppelin was always going to be a totally new approach from what had gone before - whether it was approaching the blues or folk music like 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You': nothing existed like that.

How many guitars do I have? I don't know. I don't know! But I think the answer to it is, more than I can play at any one point in time. Even though I do have double necks, so I can try and play more than at one time!

I always want to do my very best, and it's frustrating to have something hold me back.

I am very good at remembering music and am absolutely certain that I never heard 'Taurus' until 2014.

I believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it.

I can play in many sorts of categories because we've seen that with Led Zeppelin, all the acoustic stuff, and this, that and the other.

I can understand why we got bad reviews. We went right over people's heads. One album would follow another and would have nothing to do with what we'd done before. People didn't know what was going on.

I can't think of a greater guitar icon than someone who has the musical intellect to change what was there before and take music in another direction. That's a guitar hero for me.

I consider descending chromatic lines and arpeggiated chords basic skills learned by any student of the guitar.

I do know there's a lot of music where Led Zeppelin has been leant on. We didn't do anything about it. And I wouldn't want to, either.

I do not recall ever seeing Spirit perform live.

I don't really know anything about sales figures, to be honest with you.

I don't really want to go on about my personal beliefs or my involvement in magic. I'm not interested in turning anybody on to anybody that I'm turned on to.

I don't think drums had ever sounded so big until Led Zeppelin's first album.

I have one of those gravel-y voices with no range to it.

I love playing. If it was down to just that, it would be utopia. But it's not. It's airplanes, hotel rooms, limousines, and armed guards standing outside rooms. I don't get off on that part of it at all.

I play like I play. You hear it on 'Celebration Day.' It's pretty good for a one-night shot.

I played guitar all my life, all the way through the Yardbirds, but I knew that for me, this was going to be a guitar vehicle, because that's what I wanted it to be. There is no way I would play guitar like a tour de force like I did in Led Zeppelin.

I prefer to hear an artist's work and what they can do, so as far as I'm concerned, I'd get a lot more out of a collection of songs to be able to understand what the musician is doing.

I really don't listen to Led Zeppelin that much.

I really love playing live - it's such a gas.

I seem to have tireless energy when I get involved in things, on an almost OCD basis, which is a good way to do things because if you're gonna do something, you'd better make sure you do it well.

I wanted to emulate music from America - young punks playing rock n' roll is what it was. I read part of Keith Richards' autobiography, and it was totally parallel with me, learning from American records.

I was really competitive with myself.

I wasn't into jazz so much - I preferred things raw.

I wasn't on 'You Really Got Me,' but I did play on the Kinks' records.

I would say New York, Chicago, Memphis, and Los Angeles were my favorites.

I'm always looking for the creative spark. Always.

I'm involved in all things musical. It's all consuming, even if it doesn't necessarily manifest as a record or a concert.

I'm not a guitar hero.