“Almost the moment he died, they put him in Playboy as one of the greatest drummers, which he was – there’s no doubt about it. There’s never been anybody since. He’s one of the greatest drummers that ever lived.”

When I went over to the States to promote Outrider, everyone was telling me I was a blues guitarist. I’m not a bloody blues guitarist. I’m a guitarist.

I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.

I love playing. If it was down to just that, it would be utopia.

You absorb so much from whatever your environment is, as an artist, and you learn to take from it what can help you create.

I do not worship the devil. But magic does intrigue me. Magic of all kinds. I bought Crowley’s house to go up and write in. The thing is, I just never get up that way. Friends live there now.

The idea of a hypnotic riff as the prime mover of a piece of music has been around for a long time, whether you’re talking about the Delta blues or music from Middle Eastern and African cultures.

I deal in emotions. It’s the harmonic side that’s important. That’s the side I expected to be much further along on than I am now. That just means to say that I’ve got to keep at it.

There’s so much that can be done on the guitar. And that’s what is so good about the guitar – everyone can really enjoy themselves on it and have a good time, which is what it’s all about.

From the classical guitar right through to the furthest electrical experiments and everything in-between, it’s amazing what the guitar can actually do. I mean, when one thinks about sounds.

Domesticity and all that isn’t really for me.

The element of change has been the thing, really. We put out the first one, then the second… then a third LP totally different from them. It’s the reason we were able to keep it together.

The way I see it, rock & roll is folk music. Street music. It isn’t taught in school. It has to be picked up.

The key to Zeppelin’s longevity has been change.

I don’t know whether I’ll reach 40. I don’t know whether I’ll reach 35. I can’t be sure about that. I am bloody serious. I am very, very serious. I didn’t think I’d make 30.

I’m at my best when I’m exhausted and under pressure.

You can’t buy time. Everything, for me, seems to be a race against time. Especially musically.

Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.

You smile upon your friend to-day, To-day his ills are over; You hearken to the lover’s say, And happy is the lover. ‘Tis late to hearken, late to smile, But better late than never: I shall have lived a little while Before I die for ever.

The life of this world and the hereafter, in the heart of a person are like the two scales of a balance, when one becomes heavier, the other becomes lighter

I came to see a king, not a row of corpses.

Let us ease the Roman people of their continual care, who think it long to await the death of an old man.

My father was a film-maker. He always said he wanted to go like Humphrey Jennings, the legendary director who stepped backwards over a cliff while framing a better shot.

The only true infidelity is for a live man to vote himself dead.

Did I play my role well? If so, then applause, because the comedy is finished!