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I Don't Get A Lot Of Choices In Movies. It's Not Like I'm Brad Pitt And I Can Walk In And Go Here's The Film I Want To Do And Everyone Runs Around... I Don't Have That. I Stand In Line And Do Auditions. I'm There With 80 Other Guys Trying To Be That Guy. Every Once In Awhile I Luck Out.

-Henry Rollins

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I Don't Get A

Henry Rollins

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I Don't Get A Lot Of Choices In Movies. It's Not Like I'm Brad Pitt And I Can Walk In And Go Here's The Film I Want To Do And Everyone Runs Around... I Don't Have That. I Stand In Line And Do Auditions. I'm There With 80 Other Guys Trying To Be That Guy. Every Once In Awhile I Luck Out.

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Listen To The Stage Manager And Get On Stage When They Tell You To. No One Has Time For The Rock Star Bullshit. None Of The Techs Backstage Care If You're David Bowie Or The Milkman. When You Act Like A Jerk, They Are Completely Unimpressed With The Infantile Display That You Might Think Comes With Your Dubious Status. They Were There Hours Before You Building The Stage, And They Will Be There Hours After You Leave Tearing It Down. They Should Get Your Salary, And You Should Get Theirs.

I've Made Some Great Mistakes In My Life, But, You Know, They Were Honest Mistakes.

Why Do You Think The Old Stories Tell Of Men Who Set Out On Great Journeys To Impress The Gods? Because Trying To Impress People Just Isn't Worth The Time And Effort.

I Thought I Was Gonna Be In The Minimum-wage Working World All My Life.

Entertainment's Hard On The Ego. I See Why Actors Are So Psycho Now. Because There's So Much 'we Don't Want You' Going On In Acting. Even Big People Get Rejected But The Smaller People - They Really Get Rejected. Trust Me - I Know.

I Think Marriage Is A Boring And Fault-ridden Contractual Obligation.

An Adult Has The Opportunity To Enjoy The Wisdom Gleaned From Previous Decades Of Living And Experience.

While They Flail About, You Will Remain Calm In The Knowledge That You Possess Strength From Within.

I'm Not Trying To Say I'm A Big Tough Guy... I'm A Typical American-waist Deep In This Violent Culture.

We Californians Can Watch The Weather Channel For Images Of Winter's Brutality Unleashed Upon Our Fellow Americans And Thank Our Lucky Stars We Don't Have To Contend With It.

Bands Have Always Written Songs Against What They See As Wrong. Ronald Reagan Really Made For A Lot Of Songs.

I'm Most In My Element On Tour, With A Gig That Day, Like Today. I'm On The Road Where I Am Supposed To Be. I Will Be Where I'm Supposed To Be At Nighttime, On Stage, In Front Of People, Doing My Thing.

It's So Painful To Be Next To Someone You Feel Strongly About And Know You Can't Say The Things You Want To.

The Times I Have Tried To Get Close To Someone Resulted In Me Feeling Threatened And Weak.

If I Had To Perform In A Comedy Club I Would Bomb; I Would Be Trying Too Hard.

For The Last 30-plus Years, I Have Been Doing One Long, Uninterrupted Improv.

I Guess I Am Famous In A Way. I Would Rather Consider It Recognizable - I Think That Is More Logical. I Don't Feel Famous.

I Want You Bad Like A Natural Disaster. You Are All I See. You Are The Only One I Want To Know.

I Spend Several Days At A Time Without Enough Sleep. At First, Normal Activities Become Annoying. When You Are Too Tired To Eat, You Really Need Some Sleep. A Few Days Later, Things Become Strange. Loud Noises Become Louder And More Startling, Familiar Sounds Become Unfamiliar, And Life Reinvents Itself As A Surrealist Dream.

Retirement In Another Country Is Your Body Is Too Racked With Pain And Your Hands Are Too Arthritic From The Life In The Rice Patty Fields, So You Can't Work Anymore.

Without The Blues, Modern Music Would Be Nothing Like It Is Now - Not Remotely.

The Average Is The Borderline That Keeps Mere Men In Their Place. Those Who Step Over The Line Are Heroes By The Very Act. Go.

I'd Like To Talk To Sean Hannity In A Controlled Environment And Say, 'o.k., You Can't Interrupt And Jump Up And Down Like A Professional Wrestler.'

Please Don't Think That I Am One Of Those Squishy Types Who Can't Handle Reality. I Have Plenty Of Real-world Things To Deal With All The Time. I Have Deadlines, Meetings, I Answer The Phone, I Get Turned Down, I Wait In Lines And Am Forced To Pass For Normal All The Time.

I've Always Seen It As The Role Of An Artist To Drag His Inside Out, Give The Audience All You've Got. Writers, Actors, Singers, All Good Artists Do The Same. It Isn't Supposed To Be Easy.

I Am Neither Pro- Nor Anti-gun. I Am Gun-conscious.

I Work Pretty Much Every Day. I Can't Really Separate It From Life, So I Guess The Work Is My Life.

I Got Three Letters Today Telling Me That I'm God. Why Can't I Pay The Rent?

Football Is At Least As 'gay' As Rugby, Greco-roman Wrestling And The Film '300.'

I Have Always Thought That Change You Can See And Feel Is Best.

I Don't Really Have Any Women In My Life, Actually Those Two - The Women In My Life Are Two Married Women Who Work At My Office.

One Person's Disaster Is Another Person's Talking Point.

A Gun In Your Hand Makes A Fool Out Of You. A Gun In Your Hand Makes A Target Out Of Me.

The Only Safety Is In The Middle Of Total Misunderstanding And Deception.

I'm Not A Thrill Seeker. I'm Not Looking To Get Kidnapped. I'm Not Looking To Get A Shot At. I've Been Shot At. I Didn't Like It.

I Think I Am The Most Impressed With Writing Styles That Defy Category, Like Kharms Or Selby, Breton Or Jarry, Where You Become As Interested In The Writer As Much As The Writing Itself. It's All These Things That Make Reading So Appealing To Me.

I Hate Painting With A Broad Brush, But I Think The Birther Thing, At Its Root, Is Racist. The Guy Was Born In Hawaii. A Black Guy Is President. It's Cool. Get Over It. Just Deal With It. There's Nothing You Could Show These Birther People That Would Shut Them Up.

America Was Cool With Saddam Hussein When He Was Killing Iranians.

The Internet, The Camera Cellphone And The Like Have Not Only Sped Up The World's Information Uptake, But They Have Cheapened That Which They Capture.

You Know, We Are One Nation Under A God. Yes, You Were Right. An Angry, Crack Slinging God Who Decorates With Bullets And Spent Condoms.

Canadians Are Often A Friendly Bunch.

And I Love The Hate Mail I Get, The Unsigned, Misspelled Letters I Get Telling Me To Go Back To Russia Or Wherever.

I Think Americans Really Need To Start Thinking Globally. As Resources Become More Dear, We Will Be Pulled Closer To The Rest Of The World Anyway.

When I Write Lyrics, It's Only When I'm Angry Or Hurt Or Sad. So Lyrically It's Never Really Easy Going. And The Music Is Always Really Intense.

Adolescence Is A Plague On The Senses.

Punk-rock Gave Music Back To People. For A Long Time, When I Was Very Young, I Went To Go See Arena Rock Bands. I Was 16 And It Was All I Could Get In To See, Legally. And I Saw Led Zeppelin And Ted Nugent And Van Halen And All That. Me And [minor Threat And Fugazi Vocalist] Ian Mackaye Would Go To These Concerts, And It Was Fun.

Sometimes When You Meet A Musician You Are A Fan Of, And He Or She Isn't The Friendliest Person, You Walk Away From The Experience Wondering If You Will Ever Be Able To Listen To Their Music Again.

I Always Found The Chicago Audience To Be A Smart, Fast-moving, Violent And Cheerful Lot, And It's Always Good To Be Back.

It's Good To Be Able To Deal With It [anger] Somehow Other Than Drinking, Fighting, Crashing Cars, Hitting Your Kid, Your Wife, Your Husband, Your Whatever. Paintbrushes, Pens, Movie Cameras, Guitars, Microphones, Typewriters -- These Are Good Things. Weights. These Are Positive Ways, Good Ways To Deal With Anger, Frustration, Alienation, Rage. 'cause All The Other Ways Do Nothing But Hurt People.

There Is A Lot To Say About What Bikini Kill And Other 'riot Grrrl' Bands Were Able To Achieve When They First Set Out. They Were Not Some Momentary, Convulsive, Creative Spasm Of Independent Music. There Was A Very Real, Relevant Point Of View Being Expressed.

I Think That Goldman Sachs And The Pentagon Determine More Of America's Outcome Then Any President Or Any Congress, That Sounds A Bit Cynical, But I Think I Am Right.

I Always Took Quite Seriously The Things That Chuck D. Of Public Enemy Had To Say. He's Always Been Someone I've Learned Quite A Bit From And Someone I Pay A Great Deal Of Attention To.

Yes, I Guess You Could Say I Am A Loner, But I Feel More Lonely In A Crowed Room With Boring People Than I Feel On My Own.

I See Walking Bombs On The Street Hearts Not Beating, But Ticking

No One Should Die When They're 50.

There's No Such Thing As An Ex-junkie.

I Believe That When The Body Is Strong, The Mind Thinks Strong Thoughts.

So, One Way Or Another, I Found Myself In A Few Movies. I Take It Seriously When I'm On The Set, But I Don't Take Myself Seriously As An Actor.

I Think Perry Ferrell Put Independent Music On A Very Good Path With Lollapalooza.

I'm Usually Busy - If You Call Me At The House, I Get About Four Phone Calls There A Year - I'm Usually Running Around The House With A Pen In My Mouth Holding Onto Something, Folding It, Or Doing Something To It, And It's Always A Bad Time.

When You See The Escalades And The Hummers Driving Down The Street, At Least In Los Angeles, This Dry, Flat Desert With Shopping Malls, When You See Someone Driving One Of Those Through This You're Like, 'you Are Definitely Part Of The Problem.'

There's Nothing Funny About, 'yeah, I Took A First Class Plane Ticket And I Went To Some Designer Beach And Made Out With A Laotian Slave Girl.' Who Cares?

I Wasn't Playing The Music, The Music Was Playing Me... And Once That Went Away, And I Had The Feeling I Was Playing Music, I Had To Stop. The Need To Go Onstage And Get My Brain Flattened Every Night Left Me, And What I Didn't Wanna Do Is Go Onstage And Perpetrate A Fraud... You Cannot Fool An Audience.

Fish Is The Only Kind Of Respirating Thing That I Consume. Everything Else I Don't Want Any Part Of.

Scott Asheton Was A Brilliant Drummer, A Natural Musician.

I've Never Killed Anybody... But I've Definitely Thought About It. But That's How We Are. That's What Happens When You Put People Together And Put Them Into Societies And Cultures And Have Laws And The Idea Of Justice.

I Never Think Of What It's Going To Be Like Later. I Only Think In The Present Tense. The Only Time I Think Backwards Is When I Have To Reissue Something.

I Don't Want To Pass Through Life Like A Smooth Plane Ride.

I Think The U.k. Is An Amazing Place And Has Been Extremely Good To Me. Some Of My Favorite And Most-listened-to Bands Are From England. I Have Met Many Good People There And Have Been In Front Of Some Of The Most Loyal Audiences I Have Ever Encountered.

It Is Amazing To Hear Grown-up People Rationalize Homophobia And Discrimination. The Lengths They Go To Trying To Prove Their Points Take Reason To Its Breaking Point.

There Are Things That Happen So Quickly. A Better Cameraman Can Capture Them, But If The Light Is Not Bright And You Hoist Up Your Camera By The Time You've Dialed In Your Settings. There Are Eye Blink Moments Where You're Like "aaahhhh, I Wish," But Those Are Too Many To Catalogue. Nothing Really Sticks Out.

What Does New York Sound Like? For Me, The Charlie Parker At The Royal Roost Recordings On The Savoy Label Are The Total Embodiment Of The New York Music Experience.

I Have Always Maintained That Iggy Pop Is The Heavyweight Champion Of Rock & Roll.

Before Any American Points A Finger At President Putin And Calls Him Nasty Names, They Should Recognize That A Lot Of Americans Agree With Putin On His Stance Against Homosexual And Transgender People.

Contemporary Bands Often Will Do Tour-only Releases Pressed And Sold Only In Australia. Crikey!

Those Who Seek To Profit By Division Don't Stand A Chance.

As Miserable As Life May Be I Hold It Pretty Precious

The Idea That Any Performer Type Is Owed Anything Is A Joke To Me.

All My Big Heroes Are Literary, Writers. I'd Love To Meet Jimmy Hendrix Or John Coltrane, But I'd Much Rather Meet Thomas Wolfe, Or F. Scott Fitzgerald. Words And Books Have Always Meant A Lot To Me. That Someone Can Take Words And String Them Together To Where They Will Move Me Is Just A Hell Of A Thing. It's Amazing To Me; More Amazing To Me Than Music Or Painting. It's Always Been The Written Word Or The Spoken Word, Like A Great Lecture Or A Great Lyric, Or A Great Poem. To Me It's Just Amazing. And I Always Aspire Toward Capturing That, Or My Version Of It.

Airports In Major Cities, Like Lax, Are Trippy Environments. It Is At Once A National And International Gathering Of Those In Transition: The Euphoric, Emerging From Planes, Their Journey At An End, And The Determined, About To Depart.

One Of The Most Insane Environments I Have Ever Spent Time In Is A Gun Range. There We Are, All In A Line, Armed To The Teeth, Firing Away.

The Best Revenge Is To Always Survive Yourself.

I'm Always Looking Upwards And Looking Forwards And So When Someone Says, "hey, Would You Consider A Tv Show?" I Say, "hell Yeah, I'll Consider That. I'll Check That Out."

You Don't Make Me Feel Like You Used To. That's Why I'm Leaving That's Why People Leave Each Other They Come To Their Senses And Get Selfish Again.

When People Make My Country Look Bad, I Can't Stand It.

Can You Imagine Telling A Woman She Can't Vote!? The Women I Hang Out With Would Be Going Home With Parts Of Your Anatomy Swinging From Their Rearview.

As A Young Person, I Was On The Road Playing Music, So I Was Getting New Environments Shoved In My Face Whether I Wanted Them Or Not.

I Believe That One Defines Oneself By Reinvention.

There's Always Going To Be A Need For Activism; There's Always Going To Be A Need For You And Me Doing The Right Thing, Being Very Lincoln-sonian In Looking Out For Each Other.

Doing The Right Thing

I Could Fall In Love With A Cruel Desert That Kills Without Passion, A Canyon Full Of Scorpions, One Thousand Blinding Arctic Storms, A Century Sealed In A Cave, A River Of Molten Salt Flowing Down My Throat. But Never With You.

Falling In Love

Think About It: No Matter Who You Are, The Past Plays A Large Part In Your Life. I Am All About Living In The Present As Best As I Can. Try As I Might, There Is Only So Much I Am Able To Achieve On This Front.

When You're Very Young, Images That You Upload Into Your Very Young Mind Tend To Stay With You.

It Is You Who Makes Me See What I Really Am.

You Might As Well Enjoy The Day - You Never Know When And How Painfully It Could All End.

America Is A Country Born From Semi-mythologized Blood, Glory And Acts Of Selfless Patriotic Sacrifice.

As Far As Poetry, I Don't Know If I've Ever Written Any. I've Read A Lot. I Just Write And It Comes Out In Different Forms And Shapes. I Don't Know If I'm Any Good At It I Just Really Go For It And I'm Very Prolific Book Wise Only Because I Own The Company. No One Tells Me 'no' Around Here.

My Feelings For You Shame Me Into Silence.

A Man With An Excruciatingly Painful Condition Wrote Me And Told Me That His Doctor Said That The Only Cure For What He Has Is Death, And He Might Want To Consider Suicide. What Do You Say To Him? I Doubt The, "hey Let's Go Get Some Coffee And Talk" Thing Is Going To Be At All Helpful.

I Am Primarily A Loner. I Don't Go To Clubs. I Don't Hang Out With People. I Don't Know Many People. It's Just The Way It Ended Up. It's Not A Sob Story; It's Fine For Me.

Death Metal Uses A Lot Of White Face Paint And Black Hair Dye To Make Its Point. I Quite Enjoy This Genre For Its Intensity, Extremism And Underlying Irony: You Have To Be Alive To Play It And Listen To It.

I Think More Airtime Should Be Given To Donald Trump And Orly Taitz. They Should Run For Office Together. They Should Open For Charlie Sheen.

I Don't Really Write For Fun; It's Not An Enjoyable Experience. For Me, Art, Or Whatever The Hell It Is I Do, Has Always Been A Refuge From That Which Makes Me Want To Tear My Lungs Out. That's Why I Play Like I Play; I'm Not Into Entertainment.

Travelling As Extensively As I Do... The Take Away For Me Has Made Me Very Humble And Very Sympathetic To Other People's Plight In The World And Very Desirous Of Being Proactive In Being Part Of A Solution Somehow And Not Part Of A Problem. It's Made Me Very Patient And Very Grateful For Where I Live.

I'm Not A Singer. If You've Heard Any Of My Records, That's Not Singing. I Have No Vocal Qualities Whatsoever. I've Got A Lot Of Enthusisam And I Go To The Cross, But There's No Skill Going On There. It's More Just Intuitiveness.

I'm Just A Guy. I Get Treated Like I'm Famous But I Don't Take It Seriously. I Take The Time People Take Out To Check Me Out Very, Very Seriously.

And I Laugh At Myself When I Screw Things Up, Which Happens All The Time.

Castle Face Records, Run By The Oh Sees Main Man, Johnny Dwyer Is Always Worth Checking In With.

I Have Been Listening To The Stooges' Self-titled First Album For Well Over Half My Life, And It Remains One Of The Most Exciting And Essential Records I Have Ever Had The Good Fortune To Come Into Contact With.

Love Heals Scars Love Left

But Can A Song Stop A War? If Bob Marley And Bob Dylan Couldn't Do It, It Can't Be Done.

I'm Not Trying To Amass People In The Streets. I Just Want Them To Be More Aware.

Nowadays, The Media Have To Be There To Keep You From Asking Too Many Questions, From Getting Together With Other People Who Might Want To Do The Jeffersonian Thing And Call Out The Government.

I'm Disappointed By Bands Left And Right, Every Day.

I Have No Desire To Write Anything For Screen. That's A Great Talent.

As A Young Person Growing Up In Washington, D.c., Summers Were Hot, Humid And Relentless. My Friends And I Grew More Restless And Adventurous With Every Passing Year.

I Don't Need To Have My Convictions Confirmed By A Show Of Numbers. However, Being Among People In Front Of A Band Leads Me To Believe That All Is Not Lost, That Humans, Now And Then, Can Communicate On A Higher Level Than The Political And The Practical.

If I Had To Live My Life In Anticipation Of What Others Thought Of Me, Little Would Get Done.

I Live My Life Through The Prism Of Capitalism And Physiological Limits And Eventualities. In All Of That, There Is No Spirituality Required. No God And Karma Is Needed For The Numbers. I Live My Life By The Numbers. Not Only Am I An American, I Am An Americanist.

Before The Civil War, The Southern States Were Selling A Lot Of Cotton To England And Didn't Seem To Mind British Occupation. By And Large, The Revolutionary War Wasn't At All Great For Business.

Gay People Don't Have A Personality Problem. They Have A Problem With Small-minded Motherfuckers Who Can't Conquer A 1-inch High Curb.

I'm Not Exactly Ambitious As Much As I Have A Very Good Realization Of What I Am And What I Am Capable Of.

For Me, Memphis Has Always Been A City That Holds A Great Deal Of Meaning And Also Leads Me To A Lot Of Thinking. Besides Sun Studio, Which Helped Put Rock N' Roll On The Map All Over The World, The Legendary Stax Studio Also Called Memphis Home.

Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela Had And Still Has Many Detractors.

We City Dwellers, We Residents Of Los Angeles And The Surrounding Areas, Are For The Most Part Urbanized To Some Extent. We Know Deadlines, Start Times And Traffic.

I Want A Soul Mate Who Can Sit Me Down, Shut Me Up, Tell Me Ten Things I Don’t Already Know, And Make Me Laugh. I Don’t Care What You Look Like, Just Turn Me On. And If You Can Do That, I Will Follow You On Bloody Stumps Through The Snow. I Will Nibble Your Mukluks With My Own Teeth. I Will Do Your Windows. I Will Care About Your Feelings. Just Have Something In There.

I've Never Raped Or Killed Anybody, Or Hurt A Kid. I've Done All The More Inept, High-volume Stuff - Like, "whoops, Sorry I Came In Your Hair. Don't Worry, I Won't Use Your Name When I Tell This Story On Stage."

I Just Want To Be Able To Stand Up Straight For A Little While Before I Get Cut Down.

I've Never Heard Daft Punk; I've Never Heard A Track Of Theirs In My Life. They're The Two Guys With Motorcycle Helmets On?

The Talking Shows Are Like Free Jazz. I'm Just Gonna Go Out There And Blow With The Idea Of Keeping It Streamlined And Not Wasting Time. It's Wild. And It's A Great Thing When You See A Performer Really Able To.

To Me, The Real 'state Of The Union' Is Found In How Americans React To Current Events.

The Tasks I Set Out For Myself Are What I Do To Beat The Perfect Pointlessness Of Life.

I Just Work, To The Exclusion Of Most Other Things. I Rarely Work In A Frenzied Manner, Just Kind Of - If You Take The Beater That Whips The Icing Or The Eggs Into Shape - On The Upper End Of Medium Speed, That's Kind Of How I Am About Seven Days A Week.

You Have To Get Away From Them. You Have To Get As Far Away As You Can Otherwise They'll Kill You With Their Lives. They Don't Know What They Do. They Are Careless With Themselves And They Take Too Much For Granted. They Make Their Shortcomings Your Problem. The Only Way To Keep Your Head Above It And Heal Your Wounds Is To Crawl Away.

I Look At Pictures Of You Because I Am Afraid That You Would Notice Me Staring In Real Life. I Looked At Your Picture Today For Countless Minutes. It Is Closer Than I’ll Ever Get To You For Real. I Felt Like I Was Looking At A Captured Animal At A Safe Distance. If You Knew I Was Doing This, You Would Feel Sickened And Frightened. That’s Why You’ll Never Know. Years Will Go By And You’ll Never Know. I Will Never Say The Things That I Want To Say To You. I Know The Damage It Would Do. I Love You More Than I Hate My Loneliness And Pain.

I'm Not In A Position Where I Get To Pick And Choose Roles. I Usually Go On Auditions In Long Lines And Embarrass Myself In Front Of Casting Directors, And With A Lump In My Throat And My Ears Burning, I Walk Past Reception And Smirking Actors As I Go To The Parking Garage And Go Back On The Highway.

Its No Surprise To Me That Anyone Hardly Tells The Truth About How They Feel. The Smart Ones Keep To Themselves For Good Reason. Why Would You Want To Tell Anyone Anything That's Dear To You? Even When You Like Them And Want Nothing More Than To Be Closer To Them? It's So Painful To Be Next To Someone You Feel So Strongly About And Know You Can't Say The Things You Want To.

I Simply Cannot Understand How Any Parent Could Kill Themselves.

When I Am In Africa, I Always Have The Feeling That It's Where Everything Started. When I Am In New York, I Know It Is Where Everything Ended Up.

I Don't Believe In Fate Or Destiny. I Believe In Various Degrees Of Hatred, Paranoia, And Abandonment. However Much Of That Gets Heaped Upon You Doesn't Matter - It's Only A Matter Of How Much You Can Take And What It Does To You.

There Is Not One Single Police Officer In America That I Am Not Afraid Of And Not One That I Would Trust To Tell The Truth Or Obey The Laws They Are Sworn To Uphold. I Do Not Believe They Protect Me In Any Way.

You Could Split Hairs And Bring Up Words Like 'doo-wop' And Terms Like 'soul' Or 'r&b', But I Think Pop Music Is What You Want It To Be - That's Why It's Pop.

I Read A Bit Of Ray Bradbury When I Was A Younger Man. I Don't Read A Lot Of Fiction Anymore... Like, None.

America Has 2.2 Million Of It's Citizens Incarcerated. It's A Statistic We Should Be Ashamed Of.

As Far As What People Think Of Me, Maybe My Stuff Should Just Be Put Online For Free Downloads When I'm Gone.

I Wonder If It Is Australia's Great Distance From More Populated Land Masses That Allows Its Inhabitants To Be Left To Their Own Devices, To Be Incredibly Creative And, At Times, To Be Wonderfully Weird.

I Believe That One Defines Oneself By Reinvention. To Not Be Like Your Parents. To Not Be Like Your Friends. To Be Yourself. To Cut Yourself Out Of Stone.

Creativity Requires A Lot Of Pass/fail/start Again And It Is Often Hard On The Psyche.

I Get A Lot Of Shit Because I Put "i" In The Lyrics All The Time. The "i" Is Always For Someone Else... When I Say "i," It's So That When That Person Is Singing Along With The Song, It Empowers Them.

When You Put Yourself In Environments That Continually Test You, That's Where All The Good Stories Come From. That's Where The Jokes Come From Is From The Shitty Parts.

Texas Is A Hotbed Of Insanely Good Bands And Musicians.

What I'm Saying Is America Has A Job Deficit Because Hundreds Of Thousands Of Jobs Went Elsewhere. Not Because [barack] Obama Raised Your Taxes. He, In Fact, Lowered Them. They Are Lower.

Being Unique Is Never Easy, And Often, By The Time Culture Catches Up With You, There Are Only A Few People Who Notice.

It's Hard For Me To Sympathize With A Young Person Who Chooses To Go Into The Military Because They Know Where They're Going. I Think We Need To Start Depopulating The Military.

Republicans Just Can't Help Themselves. They Get In Front Of A Live Microphone And Within A Few Sentences Are Rocketing Down The Swiftest And Most Direct Route To The All-you-can-eat Comedian-and-talk-show-host Buffet.

Do You Know Why Albert Camus Was So Prolific? He Wrote To Keep From Screaming.

My Whole Access Into Culture Was Violent. Violence Is Something I Understand. Don't Like It, Don't Condone It, But I Sure Understand Where It Comes From.

I'm Not Interested In Censorship. I Like The First Amendment Very Much.

First Amendment

I'm A Recognizable Person And Some People Feel The Need For Some Reason To Take Me To Task. You're Really Messing With The Wrong Person On That One.

People Look At Things Differently. Imagine Going To A Village In Southern Sudan And Try To Explain To Someone There The Concept Of Life Insurance Or Retirement. Go To Vietnam And Say Retirement. Retirement In Another Country Is Your Body Is Too Racked With Pain And Your Hands Are Too Arthritic From The Life In The Rice Patty Fields, So You Can't Work Anymore. So You Move In With Your Son And His New Wife Takes Care Of You Because That's How Families Work There.

Have You Ever Heard The Expression 'one Hot Mess?' I Think The Term Was Custom-made For The Mayor Of Toronto, Rob Ford.

You Can Say, "well, I Have A Question," And Someone Will Say, "oh, So You Hate America." And It Has Nothing To Do With The Discussion At All.

I Write What I Can. I Think Being Able To Write Like Michael Connelly And Have A Character That Goes From Novel To Novel, Or To Dramatize History Like Vidal Or Ellroy, Or Have An Explosively Inventive Mind Like Bulgakov, Would Be An Incredible Thing. I Don't Have That. I Only Have What I Have.

A Country That Has Been Through As Much As Vietnam Has To Have Some Crazy Music Somewhere.

I'm Not A Conservative Or A Republican But I Know That There's Conservative Republicans Who I Probably Vigorously Disagree With But I Also Am Smart Enough, Or Something Enough, To Understand That They Really Think That They're Right, And They're Looking At Me Like I'm Crazy.

I Have No Pride About Anything I Have Done. It's Just Not The Way I Think About Things. I Do The Work, Always, As Hard As I Can, To The Point Of Pain, Injury, Exhaustion, If That Is What It Takes. Once I Am Done, I Move On.

One Of The Nice Things About A Favorite Pop Song Is That It's An Unconditional Truce On Judgment And Musical Snobbery. You Like The Song Because You Just Do, And There Need Not Be Any Further Criticism.

I Think To Write Fiction, This Is Just How I See It, You Have To Have A Powerful Need/desire To Connect. I Can't. Wanting To And Not Being Able To Has Lead To A Lot Of Misery In My Life.

Youth Is Fleeting And Life Is Short, You Might As Well Strike Hard. Anything Else Is Just Average.

So I'm More At Home With My Backpack, Sleeping In A Hotel Room Or On A Bus Or On An Airplane, Than I Am Necessarily On A Bed. It's Weird Being Here. It Feels Like I'm Standing Next To My Real Life.

For Many, An Album Is No Longer A Considerable Feat Of An Artist But Just Sounds To Be Half-listened To While One Is Halfheartedly Engaged In Something Else.

If You Really Want A True Confrontation, You Treat Your Opponent With Respect.

I Contribute A Large Amount Of Money To The Southern Poverty Law Center, So I'm On Their Mailing List For All Their Klan Watch Newsletters. I'm Very Well Aware Of White Power Movements In America.

I Really Like Older Writers, Perhaps Because They Take Me Out Of My Element. I Don't Have A Great Deal Of Interest In Reading A Fictionalized Present As It's Pretty Insane As It Is.

Jazz Music Is As American As It Gets, And So Is The U.s. Postal Service. A Miles Davis Stamp Is A Perfect Marriage Of Two Great American Institutions.

I Think About The Meaning Of Pain. Pain Is Personal. It Really Belongs To The One Feeling It. Probably The Only Thing That Is Your Own. I Like Mine.

I Once Asked Ozzy Osbourne, Truly One Of My Favorite People In The World, If He Was Cool With Singing Black Sabbath Songs Year After Year, Whether He Was Performing With Black Sabbath Or Out On A Solo Tour. He Said It Was Great.

I Recycle And Try To Be Nice To The Earth. But Flora And Fauna Have Always Interested Me, And It Is Because Of So Many Years Of Summer Camp And Growing Up In Dc With Rock Creek Park Fairly Near Me, Or Glover Park; I Lived In Glover Park For A While And That Park Was In My Backyard.

I Don't Hate People - Not Remotely Other Than They Make You Crazy In Traffic, But As I Get Older I Kind Of See More And More Why People Do What They Do.

When Life Hands You A Lemon, Say, 'oh Yeah, I Like Lemons! What Else Ya Got?

I Take The Work Seriously, Just Not Myself In It.

I Have Come To Regard November As The Older, Harder Man's October. I Appreciate The Early Darkness And Cooler Temperatures. It Puts My Mind In A Different Place Than October. It Is A Month For A Quieter, Slightly More Subdued Celebration Of Summer's Death As Winter Tightens Its Grip.

I'll Never Forget How The Depression And Loneliness Felt Good And Bad At The Same Time. Still Does.

In The Summer Of '84, You Just Couldn't Escape The Born In The Usa Record.

When People Hold You In High Esteem, It's Very Delicate Relationship. When They Meet You They're Putting All Their Chips Up. It's Make Or Break.

You’ll Never Know That Just Sitting Across A Room Full Of People, I Have Transformed You Into A Goddess. A Destroyer Of Despair.

Through The Years, I Have Combined Meditation, Action, And The Iron Into A Single Strength. I Believe That When The Body Is Strong, The Mind Thinks Strong Thoughts. Time Spent Away From The Iron Makes My Mind Degenerate. I Wallow In A Thick Depression. My Body Shuts Down My Mind.

Somewhere, Someone Isn’t Impressed By Your Looks. Not All Men Jump Through The Hoops Of Your Fire. You’re Unbelievably Boring To More People Than You’ll Ever Know.

Juan Williams Is A Very Sharp Guy.

One Person's Roar Is Another's Whine, Just As One Person's Music Is Another's Unendurable Noise.

If There Is One Set Of Laws, One Constitution For Every Citizen, Its Protections Hopefully Applied Equally To All, Then Why Do The Results Seem To Differ So Radically? What Do You Call That? Look Around - You're Living In It.

I Have Always Identified With Joan Didion's Depiction Of Los Angeles And Southern California, Ever Since Reading 'play It As It Lays,' 'slouching Towards Bethlehem' And 'the White Album.'

I Love Capitalism. It Rewards Me For Being Brave - It Awards Me For Being Innovative And Thinking Out Of The Box.

I'm Not Into Fame. I'm Not Into Making Money, Outside Of Financing My Books. I'm Not Into Status. My Thing Is Basically About Time - Not Wasting It.

I Think That Humans Have A Huge Capacity To Carry Pain And Sadness. There Are Things That Haunt Us Our Entire Lives; We Are Unable To Let Them Go. The Good Times Seem Almost Effervescent And Dreamlike In Comparison With The Times That Didn't Go So Well.

All Of The Jobs Have Gone Away To Satisfy The Stockholders, So That's Where The Economy Has Gone. These Major Multinational Corporations Do Not See Their Futures In America.

The First Van Halen Album Makes Johnny Rotten Out To Be What He Really Was And Still Is: A Hairdresser.

As A Teen, I Heard The Second Velvet Underground Album, 'white Light/white Heat,' And It Was Too Much For My Limited Scope Of Appreciation. It Was Intense, But I Didn't Get It.

The Ones Who Don't Do Anything Are Always The Ones Who Try To Pull You Down.

As So Much Music Is Listened To Via Mp3 Download, Many Will Never Experience The Joy Of Analog Playback, And For Them, I Feel Sorry. They Are Missing Out.

To Burn A Cdr Of Music You Like To Give As A Gift To Someone You Wish To Become Closer To Is A Cold, Moist-palmed, Mouth-breathing Bummer.

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