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“If people want to be like Keith Richards, then they better have the same physical makeup. I come from a very sturdy stock—otherwise I wouldn’t be there."

“I think I was born with the Keef riff, because to me it’s ‘Satisfaction’ backwards, and I hear it in nearly every song that I do."

“Who’d want this blood?"

—in response to a question about his

rumored blood transfusion

“It’s not that easy to be Keith Richards. But it’s not so hard either."

“I can be the cat onstage anytime I want. I like to stay in touch with him … But I’m a very placid, nice guy … It’s mainly to placate this other creature that I work."

“The things that would kill other people don’t kill me. Despite everything, I’m a survivor. I can only suppose that I possess the kind of mentality and psychological makeup that could handle it."

“I don’t look to go through life being someone else’s image of Keith Richards. I know who he is. I’m inside him. The idea of partying for nine days in order to keep the image of Keith Richards up is stupid. That was Keith Richards then. Now I’ll stay up just two or three days."

“I’m a Sagittarius, half-man, half-horse, with a license to shit in the street."

“I can be ‘Keef ’ any time. That’s easy. But there are other sides to me that are there for myself. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but that image—‘I’m Keef and I’m stoned out of my mind all the time’—can be like a ball and chain. Now and again, I try to enlighten people that there is another side to it all."

“The bugger stuck electrodes all over my body, hooked up more monitors to me than the Stones use onstage, and told me I was— normal! I mean, can you imagine anyone telling Keith Richards he was normal?"

—on a trip to the doctor

“For me, the music is the important thing, and the image comes from the way I play it."

“I’m Baudelaire rolled in with a few other cats."

“Really, it’s just in the bones and in the moves. You don’t know what attracts people to what you do."

“I actually managed to turn my little juvenile fantasies into a way of life."

“I couldn’t have written this story, man.”

“Poor old cockroaches."

—responding to the line that only

cockroaches and Keith Richards would

survive a nuclear holocaust

KINDNESS

“It’s important that people don’t feel left out."

“The truth is, the more you give, the stronger you are."

LIFE and LIVING

“I’m doomed to live."

“Hey, you come and you go."

“In a way, I don’t really mind all of the shit that I’ve had to go through. At least it kept me in touch with reality."

“I try to make things as simple and pure as possible, and have a great time."

“It’s good to see you. In fact, it’s good to see anyone."

“As far as I’m concerned, life is all you get and I’ll make the best out of it … I want to be here. And I want to see where I’m going."

“As Chekhov said, ‘Any idiot will face a crisis, it’s this day-to-day grind that’ll get you down.’ ”

“It’s the search that’s important … it doesn’t matter if you’re successful or famous … it’s that somebody picks up on it. That’s the greatest epitaph: ‘Rest in peace—he passed it on.’ ”

“The more you find out, the less you realize you know."

“All the crap you go through, I mean, how bad is it, really?"

LOVE

“Love wears a white Stetson."

“I say, out front, take it on or get out."

—on whether or not he’s a hard man to love

“I’m a lover. I’ve been trying to tell people this for years."

—responding to Marianne Faithfull’s

assertion that sleeping with Keith

was the best night of her life

“Nobody ever divorced me."

“One I do with the guitar and one I do without. But at least the guitar has a nice shape."

—on being asked if making love and

playing a concert are similar

MARKETING

“I don’t really care what they write about us, so long as they write about us."

“I went to art school, which means I don’t know shit about art but I know how to advertise."

“If they wrote about me as the sweet, gentle, loving family man, it would probably do me more damage. And be equally untrue."