“My occupation is syncopation. But, every time, my syncopation is different, because I can never play the same fill twice. I just can’t, never have been able to.”

I’ve never really done anything to create what has happened. It creates itself. I’m here because it happened. But I didn’t do anything to make it happen apart from saying ‘Yes’

Beatles, women and children first!

My soul is that of a drummer. I didn’t do it to become rich and famous. I did it because it was the love of my life.

I love that about the Beatles, that the music is still going on more than the haircut, you know.

I am, I definitely am. I’m really excited about that.

I don’t particularly like messages, because everybody takes whatever they take from whatever.

I’ve always felt that a space is as good as a fill.

I feel the older I get, the more I’m learning to handle life. Being on this quest for a long time, it’s all about finding yourself.

People in Liverpool don’t move very far, you know.

I know when I feel good when I play. There’s a closeness with musicians you only get from playing live, even in the studio it’s still playing live. For me, it’s what expands my soul.

I couldn’t put my finger on one reason why we broke up. It was time, and we were spreading out. They were spreading out more than I was. I would’ve stayed with the band.

The drummer’s always going to be there. They’re the floor of the whole deal and everyone can stand up on you.

You got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues…And you know it don’t come easy.

I made all my mistakes playing with people.

I hope the fans will take up meditation instead of drugs.

Everything government touches turns to crap.

If you attach your heart to certain places and occupations, obedience oftentimes places you in some other place that you may not like; to be always cheerful, be always humble and obedient.

At no time are people so sedulously careful to keep their trifling appointments, attend to their ordinary occupations, and thus put a commonplace aspect on life, as when conscious of some secret that if suspected would make them look monstrous in the general eye.

The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn’t talk about it. She does her work.

For a long time, I was almost ashamed of being an actress. I felt like it was a shallow occupation. People would be watching my every move.

Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.

Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupations of men engaged in rash undertakings.

If the German people lay down their arms the whole of Eastern and Southern Europe, together with the Reich, will come under Russian occupation. Behind an iron curtain mass butcheries of people would begin.

In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.