- [on his early drumming years with The Beatles] I started to be an engineer but I banged me thumb on the first day. I became a drummer because it was the only thing I could do. But whenever I hear another drummer I know I'm no good. [John Lennon] taught me the song I sing. I can only play on the off beat because John can't keep up on the rhythm guitar. I'm no good on the technical things but I'm good with all the motions, swinging my head, like. That's because I love to dance but you can't do that on the drums. I figure we're good for another four years. I don't want to invest me money in stocks or anything. I just want to have it and draw 20 or 30 quid a week. The main thing is, I don't ever want to go back to work.
- [on meeting Elvis Presley in 1965] The saddest part is that, years and years later, we found out that he tried to have us banished from America, because he was very big with the FBI. That's very sad to me, that he felt so threatened that he thought, like a lot of people, that we were bad for American youth. This is Mr. Hips, the man, and he felt we were a danger. I think that the danger was mainly to him and his career.
- I'd like to end up sort of unforgettable.
- I don't like talking. It's how I'm built. Some people gab all day and some play it smogo. I don't mind talking or smiling, it's just I don't do it very much. I haven't got a smiling face or a talking mouth.
- [on is marriage to Maureen Cox [aka Maureen Starkey] She's just sort of ordinary, she's from Liverpool. And the genuine fans wrote in saying, you know, "If you are going with her, good luck and I hope you're happy.".
- I remember the day [son Zak Starkey] was born. It was the first time I'd felt totally useless. There was [Maureen Starkey] having our baby. She kept on crying "Help!" and I kept asking "How?".
- I've never been able to sit round on my own and play drums, practice in the back room, never been able to. I've always played with other musicians. It's how I play, there's no joy for me in playing on my own, bashing away. I need a bass, a piano, guitar, whatever, and then I can play.
- I think the most exciting thing is that you expect people our age to know the music, but actually a lot of kids know the music, and if anything is left, we have left really good music, and that's the important part, not the mop-tops or whatever.
- I never studied anything, really. I didn't study the drums. I joined bands and made all the mistakes onstage.
- We were the first generation that didn't go into the army. I missed the call up by, like, 10 months, and so we were allowed, as these teenagers, not to be regimented and turn into these musicians.
- I'm probably the best rock 'n' roll drummer on earth. I say that now because I used to be embarrassed to speak up for myself.
- ... [Beatlemania]'s always on. There's nothing we can do about that. What's more interesting to me is that our records are still coming out. And they're the same records and the new generation gets to hear them, and as far as that's concerned, that's the most important thing to me. The music we make, it's still going on.
- ... it's well-documented, in 1964 that old Bill Ludwig, he presented it to me. I bought these Ludwig drums, and in the shop in England, the guy wanted to take the sign out, but I love everything American, the music and the instruments. So I made him leave the sign on. So I was a running commercial--on Sullivan [Ed Sullivan's The Ed Sullivan Show (1948)], and all that touring of America, it said "Ludwig" drums.
- [on reaching age 70] As far as I'm concerned, in my head, I'm 24. That's just how it is. The number, yeah, it's high. But I just felt I've got to celebrate it. I'm on my feet and I'm doing what I love to do, and I'm in a profession, as a musician, where we can go on for as long as we can go on. I'm not hiding from it, you know.
- Now I've realized to make the music I like there's no real reason to go to a studio. The other day, we were downloading an Echoplex machine and you just download the damn thing! I've been through quite a lot of technology, you know, but... I have two bits of wood in my hand and I hit those buggers and I love it!
- My stepdad was great, he taught me about Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, people like that. I learnt all the music I had from Bill Haley in 1954, Frankie Laine and on.
- [2011] When I started, there was rock, there was pop, there was country. That was about all. And now it's divided into 30 categories. Now I don't know one from the other.
- The '70s wasn't bad. I thought the '80s was all synthesised, even the drums, and there were weird people playing the drums.
- We've known Bob [Bob Dylan] since the early '60s and if he's playing L.A., I go and see him. It's just one of those things. He is a giant in my mind.
- I bought one record once because of the drums, and that was Cozy Cole doing "Topsy". But all the records I bought were for the whole record. It's not like I was searching out drummers and that. Al Jackson was great, of course. It's always been the whole band and the singer that's really excited me.
- I had this dream at 13 to play drums, nothing else, play drums. And when I got to play the drums, when I finally got a set when I was nearly 18, I wanted to play with good people and I started playing with the best band at the time, and then the next best band and then the biggest band, the best band of all. That's how it's always worked for me. I just wanna play, I wanna support the band. I love the band mentality. I love playing with other musicians. I'm not the one who can sit in the back room and practise, but if you can play piano and guitar I'll play with you all night. I don't like it as a solo gig, where you're just banging away. That's why I never did drum solos, there's really no need for them.
- I don't want to go back anywhere. I want to deal with what's in front of me now to the best of my abilities, and sometimes that's not very good. But a lot of the days it is really great.
- I love the modern technology now. I was a little opposed to it - "Oh, in my day, we used to have a donkey turning the wheel, and two guys chewing tape to make it soft.".
- [on downloading individual songs] It's a different time, and I'm afraid to say that's what I do. If you made a record, I'd probably pick out tracks that I like and download that. That's just how it is. We have to go with that because it's changed.
- Peace and love, peace and love. It's up to you. I'm always doing it.
- [on filming Let It Be (1970)] The police came to stop us, and I was on the roof: "Come on, drag me off!". It would be so dramatic, and the damn cop wouldn't drag me off!
- [2012] I've been asked to write an autobiography of myself, but they really only want those eight years. And I say, "But there are 10 volumes before we get to that, and 20 afterwards.".
- I was blessed with great timing. The other blessing that makes my drumming individual is that I was born left-handed. But my grandmother turned me into a right-handed person, so I'm ambidextrous. If I throw anything - play cricket or golf - it's done left-handed. But I write and cut with my right hand. I'm a weird handy guy.
- The music industry is still musicians playing music. If it has changed in any way, it is that nobody who really cares about music is running the industry. In the '80s, accountants ended up running it, and they still are. The record industry has fallen apart. But we are on to the new age, a digital one.
- When we came out, we were this big crazy pop band with these weird haircuts - which weren't really that weird. But that is what they said. We got lucky.
- Everything the government touches turns to crap.
- [at a celebration in his honor on January 20, 2014] It's a weird place to be this evening. All this praise is overwhelming really. It's great to look out and see all these people I recognize and three of them are meditating... I have to play something from the drums so you can see I can still hold the sticks.
- When I tell people my influences, they are surprised Buddy Rich is not one of them. They ask me, What about Buddy Rich? And I say, Well, what about him? He doesn't turn me on.
- [If you're a good musician] you're probably also a good cook. Because your senses are open and that creativity carries over into every part of life.
- [I invented] the craze of taking pictures of food. I really did. I was first. I love Instagram, but I've got loads of pictures of plates of food and empty chairs going back to the 1960s and '70s. You can tell a whole story from them.
- [on 'Let it Be' (1970)] I was never happy with the film because it picked one second of life - when John and Paul were in a row - and the whole documentary was built around that. There was also a lot of joy, a lot of laughter and a lot of interaction. Whatever our attitudes were at the time, we gave our all.
- When I was a teenager, I thought that everybody at 60 should be shot because they're useless. And when I got to 40 my mother said, 'I don't suppose you feel like that anymore, son.' I was well pissed of with being 40! But after that, you just go with it.
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