• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“If you can write one song, you can write nine hundred. They’re there. Your method of going about that—you can either try and regiment it, make it a task, or you can make it part of your everyday life and just sit around and play and not think about writing. Play anything you want."

“I can thank Andrew Oldham for many things, but more than anything forcing me to sit down to write these horrendous songs, ’cause when you start it’s always the worst. We’d farm them off to somebody else ’cause we didn’t wanna know. You’ve gotta get all that shit outta your system before you can really start writing."

—on early Stones songs

“My favorite Keef riff? I play it all the time! Every one’s the same, it’s a variation on the same old thing!"

“I haven’t written it yet."

—when asked what his best song is

“Nobody creates anything. It’s there, and you just fucking grab a hold of it."

“It’s like life. It’s all a little jagged and a little misunderstood."

—referring to his songs

YOUTH

“If only the whole world could stay young."

“They don’t like young kids with a lot of money. But as long as you don’t bother them, that’s cool. But we bothered them."

—on the press and “the establishment’s”

reaction to youth

“Some people have said it all by the time they’re twenty-two or twenty-five, but I don’t get that feeling with Hendrix or Joplin. I don’t think they were finished."

“The age thing almost becomes a reverse racism. If we were Muddy Waters, nobody would talk about it. We have to deal with a twenty-five-year-old guy with a paunch sitting there, going, ‘How can they do it?’ You try it, brother. It keeps you in shape."

“We’re happy to have the kids screaming for us. It gets me down to think that a lot of them will one day disappear into the drab mews. I hope all of them won’t."

“I was just learnin’ how to get busted … researching police cells."

—on his early twenties

“Impetuous youth? Gone!"

SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: INSULTS

“I couldn’t warm to him if I was cremated next to him."

—on Chuck Berry

“Are you kidding me? He used to rape, loot, and pillage all over the place."

—comparing Chuck Berry to a pirate

“He’s always scared of giving something for free."

—again on Chuck Berry

“He gave me more headaches than Mick Jagger."

—on Chuck Berry, once more

“I’ve worked with two of the toughest bitches of all time. That’s why I could handle Chuck. ‘You know who I’ve been working with for the last twenty-five years? You’re chicken feed.’ ”

“He’s a Frenchman. We can’t help them."

—on Jean-Luc Godard

“He was out of his depth in England. Like William the Conqueror."

—on Jean-Luc Godard, once again

“Skyrocket to oblivion."

—on Mick Taylor

“His writing is limited to songs for dead blondes."

—on Elton John

“I absolutely draw the line at elephants. Even with trousers on. I’ve paid me dues. I worked with Elton and that’s enough!"

“Oh man, what an old bitch."

—again, on Elton

“Reg and Rod swore they would never leave Britain. The minute their mansions were threatened they were in L.A. like a shot."

—on Elton John and Rod Stewart

“There’s more to it than saying ‘shit’ on TV or learning how to spit by practicing in front of a mirror."

—on the Sex Pistols

“You get Duran Duran come [sic] down for a day, walk into our fucking sessions and say, ‘What are you doing in that room together?’ It’s called playing music. That’s the only way we record, you snotty little turd."

“People told me to listen to Beck, but that didn’t take long."

“I don’t know where Metallica’s inspiration comes from but if it’s me, then I fucked up."

“I’ve had enough of bloody rap. I mean, ‘Mary had a little lamb, his fleece was white as fuckin’ snow.’ This is kindergarten shit."

“I think he’d been to too many nightclubs."

—on Mick doing “Miss You” as a disco song

“What do you do with lead vocalists? They’re fairies. You’ve got to let them have their head and then rein them in."

—on Mick

“The only joy I got out of being a frontman was I didn’t have to look at his ass."

—referring, of course, to