Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.

I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous.

It's good to be anywhere.

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.

The only things Mick and I disagree about is the band, the music and what we do.

Let me be clear about this. I don't have a drug problem. I have a police problem.

To make a rock'n'roll record, technology is the least important thing.

Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll.

I've always been suspicious of TV, I've always found music and video to be an unhappy marriage.

You've got the sun, you've got the moon, and you've got the Rolling Stones.

Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.

I only get ill when I give up drugs.

It's great to be here. It's great to be anywhere.

Hey, we just enjoy it. I think we think we're getting the hang of this thing, you know?

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.

I've never had a problem with drugs. I've had problems with the police.

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.

I never thought I was wasted, but I probably was.

I have no idea what the audience makes of me.

If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.

It's an addiction... and addiction is something I should know something about.

The Stones in a club is still the ultimate rush.

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.

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.

Everybody's got a different way of telling a story - and has different stories to tell.

I achieved everything I wanted to achieve by being in the Rolling Stones and making records.

I mean some doctor told me I had six months to live and I went to their funeral.

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 tried to achieve anything. I achieved everything I wanted to achieve by being in the Rolling Stones and making records.

If you say I'm great, thank you very much. But I know what I am. I could be better, man, you know?

If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use both feet.

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.

When you're supported by millions all over the world, you can either go nuts, or try to feed off the goodwill.

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.

You didn't know whether Chuck Berry was black or white - it was not a concern.

You have the sun, you have the moon, you have the air that you breathe - and you have the Rolling Stones!

You know, the BBC had not been particularly generous in its deliverance of blues and esoteric kinds of music.

Ive never had a problem with drugs. Ive had problems with the police.

If youre going to kick authority in the teeth you might as well use both feet.

Rock and roll ain't nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.

When you use music to worship you are not attempting to entertain.

Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away.

When I did the record, I was coming off a time when my contract had been sold and the music industry had changed a lot. I didn't understand how to make records for big labels. I was waiting for a new kind of record label to emerge.

You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

Whether I'm doing music or I'm walking down the street or I'm in a record store buying a record or I walk into a comic store and I'm buying comics or having a drink with my friends, it's the same me.

When rock came along the lyrics and melodies became less important and it bothered me to think that perhaps they might not regain the value they have to music - they are music.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.