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—on “sixth Stone” Ian Stewart, who

was taken out of the lineup early on to be

road manager, following his death

“Playing live with the Stones is like living in your own separate country. It’s like having an empire but no land."

“It’s actually reached a point where probably a good eighty percent of the people there at the concerts don’t even know a world without the Rolling Stones. And so you become a fixture—like the moon."

“Sometimes when you’re in the dressing room before going on, you look around and think, there’s Mick, there’s Charlie, there’s Ron … There’s me. And you suddenly think, is that all there is? Where’s the one that knows everything?"

“How to turn football stadiums into bars has been our quest."

“At our best, we master the art of going just over the edge of the abyss, then pulling back."

“God joins the goddamn band every night in the form of wind, rain, and lightning."

“I don’t see an end to the Rolling Stones. I don’t think about it happening. When it comes, if it comes, whenever. Besides, it’s all science fiction anyway."

“We breed our own viruses."

—talking about life on the road

“The Stones got too big, really, for what the Stones wanted to be."

“My gut reaction was that nobody leaves the band, except in a cof-fin. Mick Taylor was lucky … because he’s not the sort of guy that you want to beat up."

“He turned us into … a sort of conspiracy."

—on Andrew Loog Oldham

“It’s not easy to get into the Stones. It’s even harder to leave."

“We’ve become Frank Sinatra."

RON WOOD

“Ronnie’s a great mixture of talent and bullshit."

“Ronnie … never looks on the dark side of life, and sometimes you’ll be thinking, ‘Shut up, Ronnie, we don’t want to be happy.’ ”

“You want a psychiatrist, go see Ronnie. He’s a one-man suicide line. I could make a fortune selling tickets. Suicide court! They’d come out laughing their heads off, with a new vision of life."

“I can never remember Ronnie pulling a gun on me. He wouldn’t know which end to point."

“I’ve known him as stoned out of his brain … and I’ve known him straight sober. And quite honestly, there’s very little difference."

“Ronnie after all is the new boy—he’s only been in the band twenty-seven years."

“I think being straight will suit him … for a while."

“They could be burying him and he’d be laughing."

SANITY

“It’s only people who are insane who think they’re not."

“I’d never discourage a bunch of guys and girls getting together to play music. It’s the one thing that may retain their sanity."

“Listening to music is an art; it can keep your sanity."

SCHOOL

“The nearest thing I been to it is Wormwood Scrubbs [prison]. Really, it’s the same feeling."

“How could you do this to me, Marlon? I haven’t been in a principal’s office for thirty years."

—on finding out he had to go to his son Marlon’s

school following some trouble Marlon got in

SELF-KNOWLEDGE

“I’ve lived my life in my own way, and I’m here because I’ve taken the trouble to find out who I am."

“The only thing I can say is, you gotta know yourself."

“People should check in with what’s in here [the heart] and then see how you can deal with what’s out there."

“I’ve come to a conclusion after many, many years of not knowing what the hell I’m doing: It’s to just do it."

“Dealing with those kind of people taught me how to be not like them, taught me how to be a gentleman."

—on drug dealers

“I’ve lived my life in my own way, and I’m here today because I have taken the trouble to find out who I am."

“You can worry all you like. I’m not."

—in response to a reporter telling him he was

worried about Keith’s excessive habits

“I do think a certain amount of self-knowledge would help people, rather than being always distracted by exteriors."

“Hey, you can screw up. I have. Life doesn’t get any easier as you get older. It just becomes more complex. At the same time, one starts to discern certain threads which are important to follow."

“Just to put yourself up on that stage, you’ve got to have an enormous ego. It’s what