“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 achieved everything I wanted to achieve by being in the Rolling Stones and making records.

Love has sold more songs than you’ve had hot dinners.

Guitar is easy, all it takes is 5 fingers, 6 strings and 1 a**hole.

Preaching is tax free. Very little to do with God, a lot to do with money.

I never sleep alone. If there is no one to sleep next to, I’ll sleep next to a stuffed animal. It makes me feel secure and safe. It’s a little embarrassing to admit it; I’m an old man now. It’s important to me though.

True friends. Hardest thing to find, but you never look for them – they found you ; you just grow into each other

Let me be clear about this. I don’t have a drug problem. I have a police problem.

You don’t find a style. A style finds you.

Everybody starts by imitating their heroes. For me it was Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters.

I’ve never had inner turmoil about all this. You find a lot of people these days who cannot stand to be alone. You could lock me up in solitary for weeks on end, and I’d keep myself amused.

A painter’s got a canvas. The writer’s got reams of empty paper. A musician has silence.

To make a rock’n’roll record, technology is the least important thing.

I am not doing it just for the money or for you. I am doing it for me.

If you’re cool, you don’t know nothing about it. It just is, or you ain’t.

When you’re 20, you can’t imagine being 30. When you’re 30, you can’t imagine being 40. When you’re 40, you can’t imagine being 100.

Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.