Mick Jagger Quotations

Anarchy is the only slight glimmer of hope.

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.

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

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

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 got nasty habits; I take tea at three.

The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either.

Lose your dreams and you might lose your mind.

As long as my face is on page one, I don't care what they say about me on page seventeen.

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

The new fashion is to talk about the most private parts of your life; other fashion is to repent of your excesses and to criticize the drugs that made you happy in the other times.

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

I haven't had the time to plan returning to the scene because I haven't left it.

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

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.

Thank you for leaving us alone but giving us enough attention to boost our egos.

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.

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 think they know you. They know the things about you that you have forgotten.

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.

My secrets must be poetic to be believable.

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

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

I'm very much against the secondary ticket market. I don't know anyone who isn't.

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.

A lot of times songs are very much of a moment, that you just encapsulate. They come to you, you write them, you feel good that day, or bad that day.

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

I'd rather be dead than singing 'Satisfaction' when I'm forty-five.

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

I never really studied business in school. I kind of wish I had, but how boring is that?

People get very thoughtful when they are in cars. I no longer care for cars. I don't collect them.

When we drove up, he was out front, scalping T-shirts and selling a few tickets,

Network television. They're always worried about how many times you're going to say f--- on the air.

Network television, they are always worried about how many times you are going to say f--- on the air. We had a bit of a crisis this morning when they heard Aretha Franklin was going to strip during 'The Star-Spangled Banner.

I don't know - this is a long tour, I don't know what happens after this tour.

I had laryngitis twice and I had to cancel a few shows and replace them with other ones, and that was a real drag. I hate that. And Keith also had an accident where he broke his ribs.

Four of five; it's more like three. We have to boil it down to 12 minutes.

He twice asked me how much it was worth. He then said 'a thousand,' but I never replied,

The only thing that's a bit similar is the set list,

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

I think you're always prepared to listen to peoples' points of view, but when they're not working you've got to speak up as well. I think social comment is very much part of what the Rolling Stones have always done.

I think both, really, to be perfectly honest. America's obviously changed since we first came here. It's almost unrecognizable and it's very hard to imagine what the United States was like 40 years ago. We've definitely grown with the American culture changes.

It is not really aimed at anyone. It's not aimed, personally aimed, at President Bush. It wouldn't be called Sweet Neo Con if it was.

I think that would be a good idea,

I think he put the box down and opened the folded paper. He said, 'Ah, ah,' we won't have to look much further,'

I think he's a bit worried because he lives in the US,

It is certainly very critical of certain policies of the administration, but so what? Lots of people are critical.

Mick! I wanna shoot a porn video with you!

You call yourself a Christian; I call you a hypocrite. You call yourself a patriot; well, I think you're full of . . .

which is why he is 62 and as fit as he is.

We have a lot of secondary market problems in the U.K.; it's really bad there. And lots of artists are starting to participate in it, because they put the tickets up at a certain price, then the tickets get marked up by the secondary sellers, and someone else gets twice as much as you.

We haven't been here much, if that isn't an understatement, ... We've added a few more songs since then.

We kind of expected that. We didn't expect to come to China and not be censored.

were these two rebellious band members, and we would write nice little tunes, but sentimental stuff.

As I got to him he showed me the paper and I saw it contained some white powder.

They are all coming to the show and we'll have a little catch-up backstage. We're not in Sydney for very long this time: it's a lightning visit.

The thing about the NFL is they run a good show. Occasionally they make a mistake but they have been quick to rectify it.

Thank you New Brunswick, ... Where else are you from -- from Newfoundland and from Nova Scotia and from Prince Edward Island.

Pricing a concert ticket is very different from pricing a Lexus or toothpaste. Apparently he's been fundraising outside, selling bootleg T-shirts and scalping tickets.

Of course, you are as vulnerable as anyone else,

Some days, you don't feel motivated. It's cold. You have a cold. You feel crappy. But as soon as you get out there, the audience gives you an extra buzz.

As a band, we're playing together better than we ever have, ... And we're really proud of (title of new album/greatest-hits package with one new song), so while we know people like to hear the old ones, we hope they also dig the new stuff.

That's my ambition. But I've been doing so much working out and all that dancing.

I took her for granted, ... I played with her mind. I think I've just made the biggest mistake of my life.

It's great to be back here in Boston,

Not at all. You can play music forever. It's not like playing baseball.

The two teams are really different. Japan is a very professional team and Cuba is an amateur team.

The network television, they're always worried about how many times you're going curse on the air. They had another crisis this morning because they heard Aretha (Franklin) was going to strip when she was doing the Star Spangled Banner. But always it will all be worked out in the night. They needn't worry about it. Just calm down more and take life as it comes.

The network television is always worried about how many times you're going to say (blank) on the air. And they were very worried this morning because they heard Aretha was going to strip during the national anthem. But they needn't worry. Just calm down. Take life as it comes.

How come you're so wrong? My sweet neo-con, where's the money gone, in the Pentagon,

He said, 'Don't worry about it Mick, we can sort it all out.' I said 'No, we can't.' He said, 'Come on, how much is it worth to you?' He seemed to want me to name a figure but I did not want to,

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.

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.

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 would hate to say as a non-African-American person that it would be wrong for a black person to direct white people in a movie. Wouldn't that be awful of me to say that? The only sympathizing thing I might say for people that want to [grumble] is that a filmmaker should have an understanding for the place where the people you're portraying are coming from.

I think that people taking drugs occasionally are great. I think there's nothing wrong with it. But if you do it the whole time, you don't produce as good things as you could.

I don't find it easy dealing with people with drug problems. It helps if you're all taking drugs, all the same drugs.

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.

In England you're skewered on the altar of pop culture if you become pretentious.

I wasn't taking so many drugs that it was messing up my creative processes. It was a very good period, 1968 - there was a good feeling in the air. It was a very creative period for everyone.

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.

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

It's nice to collect stamps, but if it becomes obsessive, and you start stealing for your stamps, it becomes too much.

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

Always as a musician you must have one thing you do well.

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.

I love country music, but I find it very hard to take it seriously. I also think a lot of country music is sung with the tongue in cheek, so I do it tongue in cheek.

Country music... doesn't bend notes in the same way, so I suppose it's very English, really. Even though it's been very Americanized, it feels very close to me, to my roots, so to speak.

It's hard to believe that you did so many drugs for so long. That's what I find really hard. And didn't really consider it. It was eating and drinking and taking drugs and having sex. It was just part of life.

I don't know if rock is dying. I wouldn't want to say that, but the world does change. Nothing stays the same.

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.

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

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.

Boys were a very essential part of rock & roll. The girls were more onlookers.

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.

Taking drugs on a recreation level is one thing. But taking them while you're working on a stage is, I don't think it was that great. It's the control factor. And the thing about being on stage, you really want to feel that you're sort of in control a lot. It's not a place where you want to be out of control.

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

I don't really mind criticism in music or in shows and stuff like that at all. I mean, it doesn't really worry me even if it's like out of place. At least it's relevant.

The music's rehearsed a lot. All people think about is, they think, in rock 'n' roll, they get the music off right and they think it's okay standing, looking macho. Well, it's not. That's boring. If you want to be a performer you've got to do a lot more work than that.

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.