I like my time on earth. And no matter what kind of cards I've been dealt, I'm happy to be there.

What I've always tried to do is to express the highest point of me, and rock 'n' roll is the first and the most open form created by our generation. The cool thing about it is that you get the power, you get the rhythm; you can be taken over sexually, you can be taken over cerebrally; it's great to look at - it's a package deal.

I understood that in this small space of time we had mutually surrendered our loneliness and replaced it with trust.

I never had aspirations to go into politics or medicine. I always wanted to be an artist of some sort. I wasn't so politically motivated. I felt that the world from an early age was disappointing. My father taught me about the bomb, and it was eye-opening. From then on, I thought grown-ups needed to do a better job. I still think that.

My father hated rock and roll - hated it. My first real argument with my father was over the Rolling Stones. And he never, ever liked rock and roll. He just liked me.

Sometimes [people] seem to think I came out of the womb, you know, cursing, with an electric guitar.

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.