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.
I look for ambiguity when I'm writing because life is ambiguous.
You didn't know whether Chuck Berry was black or white - it was not a concern.
If you say I'm great, thank you very much. But I know what I am. I could be better, man, you know?
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.
I mean, give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string, I wouldn't get bored anywhere.
Give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string; I wouldn't get bored 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.
You know, the BBC had not been particularly generous in its deliverance of blues and esoteric kinds of music.
Everybody's got a different way of telling a story - and has different stories to tell.
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.
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.
And it was a very, very fruitful and great relationship between the Stones and The Beatles. It was very, very friendly.
You don't start to play your guitar thinking you're going to be running an organisation that will maybe generate millions.
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.
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.
When you're supported by millions all over the world, you can either go nuts, or try to feed off the goodwill.
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.
Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.
