There is no way I would play guitar like a tour de force like I did in Led Zeppelin. John Bonham, phenomenal drummer, young man with his technique, but do you think he would ever have the opportunity to play like that in another band? Of course he hadn't.

I can tell how far I ought to be going, I know how to get there, all I've got to do is keep playing.

I can communicate far better on a guitar than I can through my mouth.

You absorb so much from whatever your environment is, as an artist, and you learn to take from it what can help you create.

We went in and recorded exactly where we were at that point in time. I think because of the quality of musicianship of the band has given it the longevity. I thought the music would endure, I didn't think I would ... I always thought I'd be dead by 30, then dead by 40 and on and on. Now I'm 55 so I didn't even die at 50.

If you're working at the factory and you're cursing every day that you get up, at all costs get out of it. You'll just make yourself ill.

You can't expect to be the same person you were three years ago. Some people expect you to be and can't come to terms with the fact that if a year has elapsed between LPs, that means one year's worth of changes. The material consequently is affected by that, the lyrics are affected by that... the music too.