Mick Jagger Quotes

If you're the singer in the band, you always get more attention than anyone else.

I don't really count myself as a very sophisticated businessperson. I'm a creative artist. All I know from business I've picked up along the way.

If you're really on some heavily addictive drug, you think about the drug, and everything else is secondary. You try and make everything work, but the drug comes first.

I enjoy doing different kinds of things. I just enjoy being not tied too much. I feel that I'm tied to myself as a kind of traditional musician and a singer, and the history that I have ties me down.

They're so boring. They're so pathetic, all those journalists. Most of them are. Most of those kind that write gossip stuff, and most of it's gossip. Things are just invented about your personal life and you just have to take that. It's bullshit. People believe it, though. They just believe everything they read.

If you get to be a really big headliner, you have to be prepared for people throwing bottles at you in the night.

I came into music just because I wanted the bread. It's true. I looked around and this seemed like the only way I was going to get the kind of bread I wanted.

Drug use makes you snappy, and you get very bad-tempered and have terrible hangovers.

It's a real buzz, even in front of 20 people, to make a complete fool of yourself. But people seemed to like it. And the thing is, if people started throwing tomatoes at me, I wouldn't have gone on with it.

I was having a bit of trouble. I wasn't in a good relationship. Or I was in too many bad relationships. I had so many girlfriends at that point. None of them seemed to care they weren't pleasing me very much. I was obviously in with the wrong group.

I don't believe in having bands for solo records.

Samba rhythm is a great one to sing on, but it's also got some other suggestions in it, an undercurrent of being primitive - because it is a primitive African, South American, Afro-whatever-you-call-that rhythm. So to white people, it has a very sinister thing about it.

Americans are funny people: first you shock them, then they put you in a museum.

I'm interested in feedback and learning what people want. It's a tricky thing for me when I do a set list. You get bored doing the same songs. Let's say we do one ballad in two hours, and it's "Wild Horses." If you say, I'm tired of that, let's try something less well known, and then you're out there stumbling through this song you just relearned at sound check, and you realize people probably want "Wild Horses" instead of this (laughs). You do need to do some songs that aren't so well known. The question is how many? I'm open to people posting their requests.

You have to sing every day so you can build up to being, you know, Amazingly Brilliant

Anarchy is the only slight glimmer of hope.

When you start a new project, no matter if it's a movie like Enigma or an album like Goddess, you are always learning something. While I search, I find something new.

I got nasty habits; I take tea at three.

I don't think enjoying life is an exclusive prerogative of young people.

Thousands of years people have taken drugs, whether it's alcohol, which was invented about 5,000 years ago. People have been using that. And all kinds of marijuana and all these things, tobacco. So all these drugs have been - it seems to be the propensity of human beings to want to use them.

If you are British, you soon get used to people not loving you. The Irish remind us of offenses from 100 years ago. Perhaps we should react to what the French did to us even longer ago.

Rock 'n' roll and playing live is very addictive. But you have to really be careful, because you don't want to do it all the time. It's like when you are young and you think if you are not having sex you're wasting your time. But as you get older you realise everything has its place. It's the same thing with performing ... Performing is a great thing to do but you don't want to have to be doing it every night.

I am not a librarian of my own work. It's a good thing not to be involved with what you have done.

It's not selling out, it is called making lots of money.

I used to play Saturday night shows with different little groups. If I could get a show, I would do it. I used to do mad things - I used to go and do these shows and go on my knees and roll on the ground - when I was 15,16 years old. And my parents were extremely disapproving of it all. Because it was just not done. This was for very low-class people, remember. Rock & roll singers weren't educated people

I have a lot of songs, and I'd love to do some more recording with the band.

Anyone taking heroin is thinking about taking heroin more than they're thinking about anything else. That's the general rule about most drugs.

I, personally, have a lot of energy, so I don't see it as an immediate problem.

Well, don't we all feel like jumping to the end of the world sometimes?

Quite often when I record a song, writing it and making a demo is the big thing and, after that, I think, how do I actually translate this into real life? A lot of the time I think I can't be bothered.

For some people it's real therapy to talk to journalists about their private lives and inner thoughts. But I would rather keep something to myself.

I don't think people care about the mechanics of songwriting.

That's one of the good things about a lot of the young British bands, they are mixing all styles of music. I think that's very good because that's very modern.

I have never wanted to give up performing on stage, but one day the tours will be over.

Americans get very simple explanations of what happens to them.

I didn't really like being at college. It wasn't like it was Oxford and had been the most wonderful time of my life. It was really a dull, boring course I was stuck on.

There's hundreds of different ways of writing songs.

You can't always get what you want.

I must be careful not to get trapped in the past. That's why I tend to forget my songs.

Any performer is one person privately and then he's another person when he steps on the stage.

People have different personalities when they're drunk or take heroin, or whatever drugs.

My mother has always been unhappy with what I do. She would rather I do something nicer, like be a bricklayer.

The terrible attack in Manhattan has given place to a burst of patriotism in the United States.

I didn't have any inhibitions. I saw Elvis and Gene Vincent, and I thought, "Well, I can do this." And I liked doing it.

I read the most extravagant things about people who suffer and depress because of things written about them.

I like to have a peek, see what the audience is doing during the opening act, because it gives you a clue and gives you a good feeling of where you are - the air can be different in different places.

I love America, but I can't spend the whole year here. I can't afford the taxes

People have this obsession. They want you to be like you were in 1969. They want you to, because otherwise their youth goes with you. It's very selfish, but it's understandable.

Of course we're doing it for the money. We've always done it for the money.

I don't spend money on anything. I don't collect anything. I don't spend it on furniture.

I'd rather be dead than singing 'Satisfaction' when I'm 45.

You wake up in the morning and you look at your old spoon, and you say to yourself, 'Mick, it's time to get yourself a new spoon.' And you do.

People don't bother to check with anything anymore. They just like to speculate in print. We like fact-checking!

I don't like drugs. I think cocaine is a very bad, habit-forming bore. It's about the most boring drug ever invented.

It's like everyone I have dinner with, I'm having an affair with. Who was it I met the other day? Minnie Driver! She seems charming, but that's the only time I've met her.

Patriotism is an instant reaction that fades away when the war starts.

When Gimme Shelter was recorded, early '69 or something, it was a time of war and tension, so that's reflected in this tune. It's still wheeled out when big storms happen, as they did the other week. It's been used a lot to evoke natural disaster.

I prefer to live in a rented house. No ties. Nothing around my neck. Just the minimum kind of bare comforts of home.

You start out playing rock 'n' roll so you can have sex and do drugs, but you end up doing drugs so you can still play rock 'n' roll and have sex.

You better stop
Look around
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your nine-teenth nervous breakdown.

People love talking about when they were young and heard Honky Tonk Women for the first time. It's quite a heavy load to carry on your shoulders, the memories of so many people.

We have recorded songs on the same day that were released years later in other albums.

When we heard we were topping the bill over James Brown we couldn't believe it. We tried for two days to get it changed round - I mean you can't follow an act like that.

I'm very ambivalent in my feelings about marriage. I think it promises a lot to people - sort of like saying, once you get married you are on the highway to heaven, and quite often it isn't that. I think marriage has always been based on a combination of religious and legal reasons.

You've got to have fresh wardrobe. You can't just go out there looking like you did last time. That helps your transformation.

The elusive nature of love ... it can be such a fleeting thing. You see it there and it's just fluttering and it's gone.

I don't hate journalists. You can't hate a class of people. It's wrong to say that. But I do think they're a bit like poison. Never trust them. You can't trust them as a class of people. It's their job not to be trusted.

I've managed to avoid tattoos so far.

I am conservative with a small 'c.' It's possible to be conservative in fiscal policy, and tolerant on moral issues or questions of freedom of expression.

I wasn't understanding enough about drug addition. No one seemed to know much about drug addiction. Things like LSD were all new. No one knew the harm. People thought cocaine was good for you.

One song isn't going to ever change things, but I suppose it's the accumulation of music generally [that is]. If you can imagine a world that has no music in it, it would be a very different world, so music does change the world by virtue of all the music in it. Cumulative music of every kind, from banging a drum to playing a flute or recording symphonies, or singing 'War, what is it good for?' All those things change the whole way we live.

Most people in England don't live in the North, and people are snobby in England, so they wanted a band from the South.

When I'm 33, I quit.

I have to get up the fitness level, sing a lot, practice, get in the mood, and generally do lots of rehearsal. Get your body and mind ready.

You have to write a song around this specific character or to enhance a specific scene. A lot of other craft goes on.

I always think it's better to be not taking drugs or drinking or anything. That's not saying I've never done it because I have. But I sort of learned I think after a while there has been - it didn't take me that long to realize that it wasn't a good thing.

I don't want to be singing Satisfaction when I'm 40.

Polarization affects families and groups of friends. Its a paralyzing situation. A civil war of opinion.

Acting is mostly interpretive. They use different parts of you, and different sides of you, and different so-called talents.

I really don't see myself being apart from music. I like doing lots of different things. I've been involved in film for quite a long time and I just like doing film.

Everyone in the movie industry wants to win an Oscar. I don't think that's why you make movies. But winning an Oscar is not just about making a great movie, unfortunately. It's also having a good Oscar campaign.

I don't really like using guns too much, you know, even for sport.

All dancing is a replacement for sex

I believe we should encourage children to sing and play instruments from an early age.

I don't want to be a rock star all my life.
I couldn't bear to end up like Elvis Presley in Las Vegas with all those housewives and old ladies coming in with their handbags

It's all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back.

Killing for ideas is the most dangerous form of killing at all. Being willing to die for your ideas rather than your country is another concept, but dying for an idea, like in religion, is absurd.

There's no absolutes in life - only vodka.

Normally I am not so violent. Everything comes from the question: Where will I die? It is a strong concern.

I don't watch much ESPN. Unless they have soccer on.

The Spice Girl Victoria Beckham has just published the story of her life. I confess that it is not in my reading table.

Movies in this country, its very complicated, and we could bang on about it forever, but the French movie industry is very different because its very obviously French.

People also like partnerships because they can identify with the drama of two people in partnership. They can feed off a partnership, and that keeps people entertained. Besides, if you have a successful partnership, it's self-sustaining.

Dandelions don't tell no lies ...

I don't only like rock music. There are other forms of music that I find interesting. I would want to do everything, every kind of music. I wouldn't want to be limited to like playing heavy metal or whatever.

There is something I like about talking to journalists that really goes beyond promotion because you aren't just talking to the journalist, but you are talking through them to people who presumably are fans of the Rolling Stones. The interviews give you a chance to say a few things and maybe clear up some of the things people read about the band.

Americans shocked me by their behavior and their narrow-mindedness.

Music should elevate you. You can be raised, or left stranded. You can't be raised all the time, in my experience. This might be a rare moment. You might just go up to that level but that's always good.

Writing a song is like - you're writing a song all the time. It's just when it pops out. It's been there all the time. It's not something that suddenly you do it. It's always there. Suddenly, it's in the right mixture inside you to come out. Usually when you're writing on the piano or a guitar, you don't write in lyrics, on their own. To me it's very boring.

I don't believe in astrology. It's a lot of crap. I just think that's another thing you should throw out the window. Mysticism. Cheap. It's amazing that people still hang on to that after all these years.