Keith Richards > Quotes

“If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.”
― Keith Richards, Keith Richards: In His Own Words

“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.”
― Keith Richards, According to the Rolling Stones

“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.”
― Keith Richards

“It's really good to be here and as I always say, it's really good to be anywhere!”
― Keith Richards, Keith Richards: In His Own Words

“You can't always get what you want, but if you really need something, you usually find it.”
― Keith Richards

“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.”
― Keith Richards

“I don't regret nuthin... ”
― Keith Richards

“Why would you want to be anything else if you're Mick Jagger?”
― Keith Richards, Life

“Some people think I'm a mythical genius, others think I'm a junkie madman.”
― Keith Richards

“I don't have a problem with drugs, I have a problem with policemen.”
― Keith Richards

“The rock's easy, but the roll is another thing...”
― Keith Richards

“Preaching is tax free. Very little to do with God, a lot to do with money”
― Keith Richards, Life

“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.”
― Keith Richards, Life

“[John] Belushi was an extreme experience even by my standards.”
― Keith Richards, Life

“I firmly believe if you want to be a guitar player, you better start on acoustic and then graduate to electric. Don’t think you’re going to be Townshend or Hendrix just because you can go wee wee wah wah, and all the electronic tricks of the trade. First you’ve got to know that fucker. And you go to bed with it. If there’s no babe around, you sleep with it. She’s just the right shape.”
― Keith Richards, Life

“I like it here in Austin. Anybody got a room?”
― Keith Richards

“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.”
― Keith Richards, Life

“Its called a playground, but its nearer to a battlefield. It can be brutal”
― Keith Richards, Life

“In fact, I take the view that God, in his infinite wisdom, didn't bother to spring for two joints - heaven and hell. They're the same place, but heaven is when you get everything you want and you meet Mummy and Daddy and your best friends and you all have a hug and a kiss and play your harps. Hell is the same place - no fire and brimstone - but they all pass by and don't see you. There's nothing, no recognition. You're waving, "It's me, your father," but you're invisible. You're on a cloud, you've got your harp, but you can't play with nobody because they don't see you. That's hell.”
― Keith Richards, Life

“We age not by holding on to youth, but by letting ourselves grow and embracing whatever youthful parts remain.”
― Keith Richards, Life

“...I take the view that God, in his infinite wisdom, didn't bother to spring for two joints - heaven and hell. They're the same place, but heaven is when you get everything you want and you meet Mommy and Daddy and your best friends and you all have a hug and a kiss and play your harps. Hell is the same place - no fire and brimstone - but they just all pass by and don't see you. There's nothing, no recognition. You're waving, "It's me, your father," but you're invisible. You're on a cloud, you've got your harp, but you can't play with nobody because they don't see you. That's hell.”
― Keith Richards, Life

“We bought Candy Twirls and Bull's-Eyes and Licorice & Blackcurrant. We weren't going to lower ourselves and score at the supermarket, were we?”
― Keith Richards, Life

“A gut-string classical Spanish guitar, a sweet, lovely little lady. The smell of it. Even now, to open a guitar case, when it's an old wooden guitar, I could crawl in and close the lid.”
― Keith Richards, Life