It's taken folk a while to come around, hasn't it? Even the boys in the band weren't too sure about the whole art thing. They just wanted me to concentrate on the music. But they respect it now.

They say you can smoke 400 cigs a day and drink 20 cups of coffee, but you can't have a line or a drink again.

I like it when journalists are nice to me, and it's happening more and more.

What can I say, I'm an alcoholic. It's what I do.

All of us can't wait to get out there whatever way.

Mick says, Would you join the band? I say to him, Mick, you know I'd be there in a New York minute.

I go off into Dublin and two days later I'm spotted walking by the Liffey with a whole bunch of new friends.

I just think my body can't handle it any more. I did try a little drink a while back, and I was actually physically ill. I went into an immediate depression, and felt awful, just dreadful. So that's it. I'm over it now.

Jo left me a few months ago for 10 days. I get this note: I'll come back when the real Ronnie comes back.

When I'm left on my own I'm my own worst enemy.

Mick has expressed an interest in coming to the gallery tonight because he's seen me behaving myself lately. He is being much more supportive, which is nice.

I can't be left unsupervised.

Having loved the Stones all the time I was growing up, I wasn't about to see them go and split up. It got very close to it in the 80s, when Mick thought that Keith hated him and vice versa.

In my family, they were all big boozers.

When I first saw Jo, I said boom, that was it, because I'm a one-woman man.

With every gig we have to prove ourselves better than the night before.

I'm terrible with money, absolutely awful. I'm always losing it.

Let's face it: I paint well. I know it, you know it. There's no arguing really, is there?

I love to go to Ireland just to relax.

I'm a Gemini, so I have a great time with the other guy.

People often get the wrong impression of Mick. The clever businessman is just one side of Mick. The other side is the same as the rest of us, a true rocker!

My real self is probably more creative and more frightening than any sort of drink or drug-induced state.

We got touring with the Stones, and people were trying to keep up with Keith. He's like a human machine with a constitution of iron, and they all thought they could do the same.

My dad lived till he was 78, my mum was in her 80s, and I've got two uncles who are in their 90s now.

You don't make solo albums to have hits.

It's taken folk a while to come around, hasn't it? Even the boys in the band weren't too sure about the whole art thing. They just wanted me to concentrate on the music. But they respect it now.

The last show we played, I was straight as a die. It did feel weird not to be hiding behind alcohol or dope, but being focused was... good.

We're great, Jo and me. We're pals, and I guess sex has a lot to do with it. She's also brilliant at clearing a room. So protective, so devoted. I can't believe how much she loves me.

I always want to rock.

When I first started all this, it was mostly music fans that came along, Stones fans. But now, I'm being taken seriously. I've got highfalutin' art collectors and everything!

There's a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music, kind of an unwritten rule. I don't know what it is. But I've got it.

I've got an article where my mum says that I used to run home from school to watch the Stones on TV. Right from when I was at college I wanted to be in that band.

I heard this massive thud. I spun around, and there Keith was, on the ground. He'd cut his gums up on impact, he was very bloody, and clutching his head. I think it was a kind of wake-up call for him.

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

The principal rule of art is to please and to move. All the other rules were created to achieve this first one.

I grew up with art from the innocent age of ten - with art, but with no sense of identity.

One does not devote one's life in art to shock an audience.

The other great development has been in photography, but that too was influenced by Conceptual art.

My art became very public.

Riding a race bike is an art - a thing that you do because you feel something inside.

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?

But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.

I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.

Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

We have often been attracted to the story of the other, the outcast. And he and I just loved working together, so it just kept happening, and our relationship is completely bound up with our work. We enjoy each other's art.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.