“When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you.”

I’m all for a quiet life. I just didn’t get one.

One minute I’m standing at Ronnie Scott’s getting a standing ovation and the next minute, I’m on a marble slab

It’s a privilege just to wake up to a new day.

It might appear that nothing is happening, but that’s actually when it really happens.

My life is full of broken halos.

There’s a demon in me, and he’s still around. Without the dope, we have a bit more of a chat these days.

I never plan anything, which is probably the difference between Mick and myself. Mick needs to know what he’s gonna do tomorrow and I’m just happy to wake up to see who’s hanging around. Mick’s rock and I’m roll.

Why would you want to be anything else if you’re Mick Jagger?

I was number 1 on the who’s likely to die list for 10 years. I was really disappointed when I fell off that list.

My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow.

And then I think we realized, like any young guys, that blues are not learned in a monastery. You’ve got to go out there and get your heart broke and then come back and then you can sing the blues.

Music works in mysterious ways. Once it goes in you have no idea what it can do to you.

I don’t regret nothing.

What Muddy Waters did for us is what we should do for others. It’s the old thing, what you want written on your tombstone as a musician: ‘He passed it on.’

I never thought I was wasted, but I probably was.

No broken hearts, no broken necks.