Keith Richards

Rock and roll ain't nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.

Everyone talks about rock these days; the problem is they forget about the roll.

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.

If you've gotta think about being cool, you ain't cool.

If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

There's something beautifully friendly and elevating about a bunch of guys playing music together. This wonderful little world that is unassailable. It's really teamwork, one guy supporting the others, and it's all for one purpose, and there's no flies in the ointment, for a while. And nobody conducting, it's all up to you. It's really jazz__that's the big secret. Rock and roll ain't nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.

When you're supported by millions all over the world, you can either go nuts, or try to feed off the goodwill.

I've never tried to achieve anything. I achieved everything I wanted to achieve by being in the Rolling Stones and making records.

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

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

I mean, give me a guitar, give me a piano, give me a broom and string, I wouldn't get bored anywhere.

There's no substitute for live work to keep a band together.

This is the rock 'n' roll life, and you had to invent it as you went along. There was no textbook to say how you operate this machinery.

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

Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones.