“I guess anything in excess is no good for you, even things that are supposed to be healthy.”

I’m against any religion, and Communism and Nazism – they’re both equally religions. They’re just replacement gods.

I didn’t really want to be in the lifestyle without the music. And I didn’t want to be in the music without the lifestyle.

I’ve never met a girl who could stop me looking at all the others. If I did, I’d marry her.

As a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, I learned that I should give up being a guitar player.

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.

I don’t miss anything by being a bachelor. I don’t know any happily married couples, not even my parents.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

Almost anything can be funny if said the right way – but it has to be said the right way.

When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do.

I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea.

I want to be respected as a guy who knows what he’s talking about. And that, to me, holds more weight than anything else.

I never take anything for granted. I may slip any minute.

I got a dog with a Napoleon complex. I have a Napoleon complex. We’re small. Anything big that we feel is threatening us, we want to fight. We’re not a pushover.