Keith Richards Quotes
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I don't like to go into the studio with all the songs worked out and planned before hand ... you've got to give the band something to use its imagination on as well. That can make a very ordinary song come alive into something totally different ... the X-factor - so important in rock and roll - which is the feel.
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But I'm not here just to make records and money. I'm here to say something and to touch other people, sometimes in a cry of desperation: "Do you know this feeling?
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Give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string; I wouldn't get bored anywhere.
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Retire? I can't spell the word. I'd play in a wheelchair.
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We age not by holding on to youth, but by letting ourselves grow and embracing whatever youthful parts remain.
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I don't encourage anybody to do what I do, you know? Why should you? More for me!
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The electric guitar meant that you could have a band with a drummer and a couple of guitars. And that put a lot of horn players out of work.
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Everybody starts by imitating their heroes. For me it was Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters.
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When I listen to what I did under the influence - 10 years of work - I don't think it either enhanced or impaired me. It didn't have that much to do with it.
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It's a privilege just to wake up to a new day.
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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.
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I like it here in Austin. Anybody got a room?
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If you're gonna get wasted, get wasted elegantly.
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You know, the BBC had not been particularly generous in its deliverance of blues and esoteric kinds of music.
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One minute I'm standing at Ronnie Scott's getting a standing ovation and the next minute, I'm on a marble slab...
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I occasionally borrow pot from my kids. They do a little weed occasionally. 'Here, Dad' — or more likely, 'Dad, have you got any?'
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There's just certain styles of playing that you do play in your own way. Maybe it's in the way your fingers bend, for all I know. And so whenever you pick up the guitar it's not so much the sound of the instrument itself, it's like the ting that you add onto it-the attitude.
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What is it that makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people’s hearts. You want to plant yourself there, or at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you’re playing. It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people. To write a song that is remembered and taken to heart is a connection, a touching of bases. A thread that runs through all of us. A stab to the heart. Sometimes I think songwriting is about tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack.
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Most guys I know are assholes. I have some great asshole friends, but that's not the point. Friendship has got nothing to do with that. It's can you hang, can you talk about this without any feeling of distance between you? Friendship is the diminishing of distance between people. That's what friendship is, and to me it's one of the most important things in the world.
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But I've always felt very comfortable on stage, even if I screw up. It always felt like a dog, this is my turf, piss around it. While I'm here, nothing else can happen. All I can do is screw up. Otherwise, have a good time.
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If you are going to get wasted, then get wasted elegantly.
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Some of my most outrageous nights- I can only believe actually happened because of corroborating evidence. No wonder I'm famous for partying! The ultimate party- if it's any good- you can't remember it.
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There are certain guys that are band players and there's certain guys that ain't. If there's anybody lazier than me, it's Eric (Clapton).
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The electric guitar was vital in helping what I've achieved where would I be without it? Playing awfully quietly, for a start.