“I can never be anonymous – especially when I walk round looking like this; especially when I take so much trouble not to be anonymous, right?”

Rock n’ roll’s had a good time out of me – and I’ve had a very good time out of rock n’ roll.

Eddie Cochran – I never got to see him live, but he could play. Him and Buddy Holly, they were the best guitarists. They could get a good raunchy beat going.

Falling in love is terrible. It makes you act foolish, like an idiot.

Everyone wants to be safe. Well, I got news for you: You can’t be safe. Life’s not safe. Your work isn’t safe.

My persona has given me a certain notoriety, if not international celebrity.

I went to go see the Rolling Stones in the park, and they were awful: completely out of tune. Jagger wore a frock.

Women always left me because I wouldn’t commit, but then nothing changes a relationship like commitment. If you move in with someone, you lose all respect for them.

I don’t eat vegetables. I eat potatoes and green beans, and that’s it.

It’s much more fun to be full of hope than pessimism any day of the week.

We’ve made bad albums in the past, and people have bought them. I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m just grateful for it.

You can’t plan your life. It doesn’t work.

It’s when you get to 60 when everything starts to go pear-shaped. Everyone thinks that becoming an older guy is easy, but you never consider it fully. It comes as quite a shock.

Human nature is to blame for everything, innit? We’re just a disease on this planet.

It just seems like we get more popular every eight years or so. For some reason, it becomes cool to like Motorhead again.

It’s not that I take pride in being unfashionable. It’s just that I’ve gotten used to it.

A lot of photos were taken of us next to milk churns.

In the future, everybody will be anonymous for 15 minutes.

The anonymity of the city is one of its strengths as well as – carried too far – one of its weaknesses.

By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.

The challenge for me as an actor is if you become a celebrity, you don’t meet strangers anymore. And strangers are where we have our anonymity. And I believe it’s essential for the soul to be anonymous, especially if you’re going to be an actor.

Anonymity beats fame. One cannot undo fame.

I think everybody really responds to the secret society aspect. This idea that you have to remain anonymous, and yet at the same time, you’re kind of saving the world.

In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.

Overall I enjoy a certain anonymity. I live a very normal, very ordinary life.