Keef on Keef

I'm just a retarded gangster really.

Keith Richards

Keef on fame

Fame has killed more very talented guys than drugs. Jimi Hendrix didn't die of an overdose, he died of fame.

Keith Richards

Keef on ageing

Getting old is a fascinating thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.

Keith Richards

Keef on style

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

Keith Richards

Keef on beauty and skulls

Skulls remind us that underneath it all, we are all the same. Beauty is only skin-deep.

Keith Richards

Keef on vomiting protocol

I learned how to puke properly. First, find a receptacle if you can -- that's rule number one. You eject it in a stream -- a Technicolor yawn, parking a tiger. At the same time, you're taking a crap. Which is kind of difficult to do. If you can do that, I'll put you in Cirque du Soleil.

Keith Richards

Keef on parenting

I've done a lot of dadding. Whoo, I tell you what -- it grows you up pretty quick when that little bugger starts waking up. Suddenly there's this little cute ball of stuff yelling its head off -- boom! Snap to! Oh, man, I better take care of this.

Keith Richards

Keef on Women and complications

Women are a beautiful complication, and I look forward to far more beauties and far more complications.

Keith Richards

Keef on religion and killing

We’re the only form of life on this planet that needs religion, that will actually kill each other over some abstract idea.

Keith Richards

Keef on the language of music

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

Keef on religion and the public library

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

Keef on authority and rebellion

If you’re going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.

Keith Richards

Keef on confession and avoidance

You can’t accuse me of anything I haven’t already confessed to.

Keith Richards

Keef on the musician's medium

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

Keith Richards

Keef on Bible study

I read the Bible sometimes, but it bores me to death. I just want to know what other people find so bloody fascinating.

Keith Richards

Keef on dealing with life

To me, life is a wild animal. You hope to deal with it when it leaps at you.

Keith Richards

Keef on over-dose etiquette

I’ve never turned blue in someone else’s bathroom. I consider that the height of bad manners.

Keith Richards

Keef on trepannation

Yes, I’ve been trepanned. I’ve got pictures of it. They cut my head, brain, skull open, went in and pulled out the crap and put some back in again..

Keith Richards

Keef on death, drugs and parental relationships

I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up in little bits of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared. It went down pretty well and I’m still alive.

Keith Richards

Keef on his definition of Rock & Roll

Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards.

Keith Richards