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I Get Letters From Young People Telling Me That They're Broke And Download My Albums For Free. They Ask Me What I Think About That. I Now Have A Standard Line. I Tell Them, 'i Would Rather Be Heard Than Paid.'

-Henry Rollins

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I Get Letters From

Henry Rollins

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I Get Letters From Young People Telling Me That They're Broke And Download My Albums For Free. They Ask Me What I Think About That. I Now Have A Standard Line. I Tell Them, 'i Would Rather Be Heard Than Paid.'

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Whenever Any Great Song Or Album Gets Lost In The Ether, Someone Is Deprived Of The Joy Of Hearing It, And The Great Effort Of Those Who Created And Recorded The Work Is Damaged.

Human Beings Should Not Be Reduced To A State To Where They Almost Get Into A Fight Over A Small Bar Of Soap.

I Don't Know If Music Has Ever Achieved Anything Past Appealing To The People That It Appeals To. If A Song Could Stop A War, Then Bob Marley And Bob Dylan Songs Would Have Stopped One Or Two.

The History Of Apartheid-era South Africa Is Incredibly Sad And At Times Infuriatingly Incomprehensible.

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

I Lay Off A Lot Modern Fiction And Only Rely On Living Writers For Non-fiction Work.

I Get Angry About Stuff, I Get Very Emotionally Intense About Stuff And That's How I Get It Out - With Books, With The Band, On My Own Onstage, But It's Always Kind Of A Wail.

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.

I Don't Have Talent. I Have Tenacity.

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.

Don't Do Anything By Half. If You Love Someone, Love Them With All Your Soul.

Unconditional Love

For Me, Returning To Los Angeles Annihilates The Memories Of Where I Have Just Been With An Astonishing Speed.

Life Is Weird, Great And Dangerous.

Music, To Me, Is Mankind's Greatest Possible Achievement Because Look At All The Good It Does.

Early Spring Is The Time For Vigorous Change, A Preparation For The Heat-driven Oppression That Is To Come.

In The Late Summer Of 1986, The Band I Had Been In For Five Years Stopped Playing. Suddenly, I Was On My Own. This New State Of Bandlessness Was, At First, Traumatic. When Your Group Breaks Up, A Lot Of Broken Parts Hit The Ground.

I Come From A Town Of Great Musicians: Washington, D.c. It's No Joke, That History.

It Took Me Until My Teenage Years To Realize That I Was Medicating With Music. I Was Pushing Back Against My Stupid School Uniform, Instructors Who Called Me By My Last Name And My Classmates, Who, While Friendly Enough, Were Not At All Inspiring.

I'm Mellower Now, I'm Over 50. But I Don't Think I'm Too Mellow. I'm Still Angry At A Lot Of Things.

I Have Been An Xl Fan Of Devo Since I Was In High School In The 1970s. Their Records Only Sound Better With Time.

Someone Like Ashlee Simpson, She Lip-synchs On 'saturday Night Live,' Gets Totally Called Out La Milli Vanilli, And No One Really Cares That Much. It Doesn't Make Me Hate Ashlee; She's Just Taking Instructions.

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 Am Basically Working 7 Days A Week. When I Am Not Eating, Sleeping, Or Working Out, I Am Working On One Of Projects Which I Am Just Damned Determined To Finish.

To See Change In Your Own Area Code Is Very Powerful. There's A Little Orphanage Down The Street From My Company, And We Donate $1 From The Sale Of Each Cd We Sell To The Orphanage.

Never Once Have I Thought That Social Security Would Be Something That Would Ever Be Available To Me.

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.

The Best Revenge Is To Always Survive Yourself.

It Is Instilled In Thousands Of American Males From An Early Age That One Of Their Requirements Is To Be Able To Both Dish Out And Take A Lot Of Pain. They Are Taught The Rules Of This Road In Gyms, Rings, Backyards And Fields All Over America.

America's Foreign Policy Lacks The Backbone To Do The Right Thing In Afghanistan - Which Is Leave.

Black Sabbath - One Of The World's Universal Language Of Music. I Felt Proud, For Three Or Four Minutes Of My Life Combining My Voice With Tony Iommi's Guitar Sound.

There’s Got To Be Someone For Me. It’s Not Too Much To Ask. Just Someone To Be With. Someone To Love. Someone To Give Everything To. Someone.

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 Packed With Broken Glass And Memories And It All Hurts.

No One Should Die When They're 50.

There Is No Heaven For Me And No Hell. And Certainly Not Any Karma.

When You Are Young, There Is So Much Ahead Of You, It's Like The Saharan Desert. You Can't Even See Across It.

The Ninja, As You Know, Operates By Stealth. And So, Case In Point: I Put Out Records... No One Hears Them! I Make Videos... (whispers) No One Sees! I Go On Tour.... (whispers) No One Knows! Ninja! I Was Never Here!

I Have To Do Things For Myself, And If Those Standards Are Set High, Then It's Up To Me To Pass Or Fail.

Guns Are Part Of The American Identity.

American Identity

When You Start To Doubt Yourself The Real World Will Eat You Alive.

I Was Never Told To "get Up, Get Out There, Get A Job." It Was Never A Thing Either Parent Ever Said I Had To Do. It Was What I Wanted To Do. I Think I Was Very Interested In Being Away From Them As Much As Possible. Employment Was Great For That.

Life Is A Hurdle And You'll Never Clear It. Death Is The End Of The Ride And You Fear It.

The Arts In America Exist In Spite Of America, Not Because Of America.

Mr. Christ, I Read You As An Infinitely Patient Entity Who, As They Say, Often Works In Mysterious Ways, A Rebel Unafraid To Take The Tougher, Less Traveled Paths. Seems To Me You're Playing The Long Game. Is That Why More States Are Coming Out In Favor Of Marriage Equality? Is That Why The Affordable Care Act Is Now With Us?

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 Beg Young People To Travel.

I Feel Like A Visitor That Got Left Behind By His Ride.

My Feelings For You Shame Me Into Silence.

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

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

Certainly, There Are Huge, Multiplatinum Bands Whose Singers Command Their Audience's Attention. Sadly, Much Of The Time They Have Little To Say.

You Have To Realize There Are Other People, Other Economies, Governments, Cultures, Religions, And Destinies Going On At The Same Time As Yours. You Have To Widen The Scope Of Your Lens And Start Seeing More.

Culture Religion

Rush Limbaugh Makes Money Getting Simpleminded People To Feel Good About Their Intellectually Undernourished Brain Spasms. He's Very Good At It, And I Scarcely Believe A Fraction Of What He Says.

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'd Defend Myself. But I Don't Go Around Shoving People Around; That's Not Me At All - That's For A Cop. I'm Not Into That Type Of Behavior At All.

My Love Runs Deeper Than The Wounds.

I Beg Young People To Travel. If You Don't Have A Passport, Get One.........the Re Are Lessons That You Can't Get Out Of A Book That Are Waiting For You At The Other End Of That Flight. A Lot Of People - Americans And Europeans - Come Back And Go, "ohhhhh." And The Lightbulb Goes On.

'duck Dynasty' Is A Ridiculous Show, And Long May It Wave. America And Democracy Will Endure. They've Seen A Lot Worse.

With A Book, There's No Volume To Turn Up. You're Very Naked With A Book.

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.

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 Believe That Capitalism, At Least How It's Used By Major Corporations, And Environmental Concerns Are In Opposition. To Be Ecologically Aware, Productivity Of Many Things Would Slow Down At Least For Awhile. Stockholders Don't Want To Hear About The Saving Of The Whales Or Some Stream In Kentucky. They Want A Return On Their Investment.

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

I Have To Keep Moving I Don't Want To Think I'm Going To Work All Day Today I Don't Want To Stop Don't Want To Let My Brain Catch Up My Thoughts How Will I Be Able To Tell Them That I'm A Shadow A Grey Patch Of Cold Rotting Life

We Spend Millions Of Dollars To Remove Pain From Our Lives. It's Why So Many People Get Hooked On Painkillers. The Body Becomes Addicted To Painlessness. That Tells You A Lot.

I Don't Think You'll Ever Have A Perfect World Because We Humans Are Prone To Error, And So We're Always In Search Of An Upgrade.

It Is Our Destiny To Be Born Beautiful Into An Ugly Age.

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

I Think Self-reliance And Self-responsibility And Self-accountability Will Help You As A Parent, A Teacher, As A Citizen As A Friend.

War Is Very Sad And Small Life Is Pathetically Fragile At Times.

If You Think About It, Every Single Species Is Endangered. Homo Sapiens At The Front Of The Line, Mosquitoes And Lawyers At The Back.

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

August Brings Into Sharp Focus And A Furious Boil Everything I've Been Listening To In The Late Spring And Summer.

I Warn People, Your 40s Will Require Massive Amounts Of Humor And Humility.

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

Youths Write Me And Tell Me That Their Band Will Go Nowhere Because Of All The Bad Bands In The World. I Tell Them There Has Always Been Awful Music And That No Great Band Ever Wasted Any Time Complaining, They Just Got It Done. Their Ropey Ranting Is Just A Way To Get Out Of The Hard Work Of Making Music That Will Do Some Lasting Damage.

The Gop Grows More And More Unpopular With Female Voters Seemingly Every Time One Of Its Leaders Gets In Front Of A Microphone. Misogynist Is As Misogynist Does. The Gop And Its Bloviating Pundits Don't Like Women And They Are Unable To Hide It, Nor Do They Seem To Make Much Attempt To Do So.

I Was A Very Repressed Young Person. I Wasn't Good At School. I Didn't Fit In.

I'd Like To Talk To Arnold Schwarzenegger, 'cause I Live In California And I Just Want To See That Canned, Chemical Filled Body In My Office.

What Makes Me Uncomfortable About [barack] Obama Is What Makes Me Uncomfortable About Any Young Politician Who Has Not Yet Been Bloodied Inside The Beltway.

Go Without A Coat When It's Cold; Find Out What Cold Is. Go Hungry; Keep Your Existence Lean. Wear Away The Fat, Get Down To The Lean Tissue And See What It's All About. The Only Time You Define Your Character Is When You Go Without. In Times Of Hardship, You Find Out What You're Made Of And What You're Capable Of. If You're Never Tested, You'll Never Define You Character.

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.

I Don't Need Music For The Good Times. I Don't Have That Kind Of Need. Music Doesn't Serve Me Like That.

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.

People Who Keep A Large Snake In Their Apartment Building, Which Happens Quite A Bit, All Of A Sudden, Within Two Summers, Have A 14-foot Animal That's Eating Adult Rabbits, And Needs Quite A Bit Of Room And Quite A Bit Of Heat. That's The Animal That Gets Put In The Back Of A Pick-up Truck And Dumped Into The Florida Everglades Or The City Lake, Or Just Left On A Doorstep - Again, It's Quite Often The Animal That Suffers.

More Than 30 Years Ago, In Washington, D.c., I Secured A Copy Of A Single By A Los Angeles Band Called The Bags. The Two-song 7-inch, Released On Dangerhouse, Had A Girl On The Cover Who Looked Right At You With Huge Eyes. The Songs, 'survive' And 'babylonian Gorgon,' Were Great And Made Many Of My Mix Tapes.

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.

Girls Aren't Beautiful, They're Pretty. Beautiful Is Too Heavy A Word To Assign To A Girl. Women Are Beautiful Because Their Faces Show That They Know They Have Lost Something And Picked Up Something Else.

Nothing Moves Me More Than The History Of The United States.

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.

Love Beyond The Damage.

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

Keep Walking. Hot Night Right Now, Right Here. All You Have Is What You Are. All You Want Is Much Too Much. All You Get Is So Much Less. All You Feel Is Nothing. All You See Is Darkness. All You Know Is Senseless And All You Can Do About It Is Ride.

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

I Am The Flying Saucer Man From Another World Trapped On Yours Until They Come To Rescue Me. One Day The Saucer Will Land. Jimi Hendrix And John Coltrane Will Open The Hatch And Tell Me To Get In Before Someone Tries To Blow Up The Ship. I'll Just Ask What Took Them So Long. Within Seconds We'll Be Out Of Here.

But I Have A Good Life. I Enjoy What I Do. I Am Married To Work.

My Acting Range Is Incredibly Limited And Narrow, But I'm A Good Heavy. I'm A Good Authoritarian Figure; I Don't Know Why. "can You Be A Cop?" Sure. "can You Be A Marine?" Absolutely. Well, At Least In A Movie.

I Just Get Things Done Instead Of Talking About Getting Them Done. I Don't Go Out And Party. I Don't Smoke, Drink Or Do Drugs And I'm Not Married, That Leaves A Lot Of Time For My Work.

Quite Often Governments Are One Way And The People Are Another. You Can't Judge The Many By The Actions Of A Few. What If Americans Were All Judged By The Actions Of The Bush Administration And People Did Not Know The Truth? That America Is Full Of People Who Are, At Present, Poorly Represented And Poorly Catered To By The Media. All These Places I Go, People Say That America Is Good And I'm Like, "well, Thank You, I'm Glad You Can See It." And You Know - We Are Good, We've Just Got Work To Do.

I Live My Life By The Numbers. Not Only Am I An American, I Am An Americanist.

Pride Is Not A Word Or Sentiment I Can Ascribe To Anything I Have Done Or Do. As Far As Regret, It Is A Luxury I Can Not Afford. Anything I Did, That Was Bad Or Wrong Or Regretful, I Stand Accused, I Am Guilty And I'm Ready To Serve My Time.

Now, If Someone Wants To Spit On Me, I Just Roll Up The Window Of My Bmw 540i.

Too Sick And Freaked Out Not To Want A Bullet For Every Passer By, Too Sick And Freaked Out To Breathe, Too Sick And Freaked Out To Care, Too Sick And Freaked Out To Think Of Anything But The Annihilation Of My Mind And Denial Of My Life. So Sick And Freaked Out That I Think Everyone Is My Friend.

Sitting In A Room, Alone, Listening To A Cd Is To Be Lonely. Sitting In A Room Alone With An Lp Crackling Away, Or Sitting Next To The Turntable Listening To A Song At A Time Via 7-inch Single Is Enjoying The Sublime State Of Solitude.

I Prefer To Work Out Alone. It Enables Me To Concentrate On The Lessons That The Iron Has For Me.

Lifting Weights

Maybe I'm Ego-tripping, But I Don't Find Myself A Particularly Horrible Person, So I Don't Think I Need To Hold Back Anything I Think Or Feel.

The Music Kind Of Takes Care Of Itself Because We've Done All That As Preproduction In The Practice Room. So By The Time It Gets Onstage, Each Song Has About One Hundred Hours Of Way Too Much Mothering Gone Into It. So When You See Us Play Live, That Is The Product Of Ninety Days Of Practice, Over A Year Of Writing, Listening To Demos On The Weekends After Practice.

I Don't Really Think About The Audience Much. I Think Of Myself. Let Me Dig Myself Out Of That One.

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

What If Americans Were All Judged By The Actions Of The Bush Administration And People Did Not Know The Truth? That America Is Full Of People Who Are, At Present, Poorly Represented And Poorly Catered To By The Media.

With Age, Life Becomes Complex And Difficult, Often Fraught With Risk On Several Levels, From The Practical To The Fiscal.

The More You Own, The More It Owns You.

My First Visit To West Berlin Was In February 1983. The Drive Through East Berlin, The Fact That West Berlin Was Surrounded By A Wall That Was More Than 100 Miles Long - The Absurdity And Intensity Of It Really Knocked Me Out.

I Can Only Write About Personal Stuff, About My Point Of View.

The Scars Will Take Me Far, They Always Do.

This Is My 25th Year Of Being On Stage. A Lot Of People Who I Kind Of Toed Up To The Starting Line With Are No Longer In This Position. I Feel Very, Very Lucky.

Anyone Who Wants To Help Me Doesn't. Anyone Who Wants To Kill Me Might. Anyone Who Wants To Love Me Better Not.

Everyone Should Have The Right To Go Off And Do Their Music Or Do Their Books. The People Who Are In The Position To Censor They're Really Not Down To Reality Where That Certain Artists Are Coming From.

As A Young Person, I Wanted Everyone To Agree With Me.

I Can't Remember That I Ever Had Just A Minute Of Stage Fright.

I'm 36 And If I Met A Woman Of My Own Age And Married Her, I'd Also Be Marrying Her Former Life, Her Past. It Might Be Ok For Some People - I Don't Want To Judge It Or Anything - But It's Not For Me. It Would Destroy My Creativity.

They Say True Love Only Comes Around Once And You Have To Hold Out And Be Strong Until Then. I Have Been Waiting. I Have Been Searching. I Am A Man Under The Moon, Walking The Streets Of Earth Until Dawn. There's Got To Be Someone For Me. It's Not Too Much To Ask. Just Someone To Be With. Someone To Love. Someone To Give Everything To. Someone.

That's Where The Economy Is Going. It Went Somewhere. Just Not To America. And The Money Made? That Went To The Cayman Islands And Switzerland. Not Back Here. Never To Be Taxed.

He Said That Hate Makes The World Go Round People Are Afraid Of What They Really Want They Make Enemies Of All The Things That They Would Like To Be They Condition Themselves To Not Embrace What They Are Love Is A Clinging Nausea I Tried To Disagree With Him It Was No Use I Never Saw A More Honest Look In Anyone's Eyes.

Some People Tell Me That They Like What I Do, Which Is Great, Of Course. The Perfect Irony And Truth Is That I Need Them Much More Than They Need Me.

I'm Not Trying To Amass People In The Streets. I Just Want Them To Be More Aware. So Many Americans, For One Reason Or Another, They Watch The News And It Doesn't Really Give Them The Idea Of The World. Or They Don't Read Or Travel. They Have No Idea That America Is Part Of The World And Not The World Itself. And So Anything From The Travel Stories I Tell, That's What I'm Trying To Get Across.

Pizza Makes Me Think That Anything Is Possible.

Anything Is Possible

My Father Did Not Rock. He Just Earned And Hated. Don't End Up Like This Man.

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

It Has Been Hard To Get My Head Around How Justice Antonin Scalia Rationalizes His Decisions. His Body Blow To The Voting Rights Act Was A Head Scratcher, But At Least He Was Calm When He Attempted To Justify His Odd Logic.

The More I Learn About Mr. Romney, The Less There Is To Admire.

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

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.

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.

A Man Came Up To Me The Other Day And Said He Hadn't Had A Bite In Weeks. So You Know What I Did? I Walked By Him Like He Didn't Even Exist.

Knowledge Without Mileage Equals Bullshit.

There Is No Better Way To Fight Weakness Than With Strength. Once The Mind And Body Have Been Awakened To Their True Potential, It's Impossible To Turn Back.

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

Giving A Good Performance, Giving It All Is What It's All About. I Love To Perform.

In Many Ways, America Is On The Receiving End Of A Pendulum That Has Been Swung With Great Force, And For A Long Time, Outward Into The World. The Impact Is A Wake-up Call On Every Level.

I Have Heard People Say That They Felt Closer To Their Parents After They Have Died. Maybe If I Treat People As If They Were Dead, I Could Get Along With Them Better

Best Not To Mix The Past With The Present. The Present Paints The Past With Gold. The Past Paints The Present With Lead.

Of Course Same Sex Marriage Is Constitutional! The Right To Be Yourself, To Pursue Life, Liberty, And Property, Is Protected Several Ways Over Several Amendments. John Boehner Should Know This.

I Was Very Lucky To Have Had The Opportunity To Tour With The Beastie Boys And Watched Almost Every Set They Played On All Those Dates. Why Not? You Do Your Set And Then You Get To See The Beasties Play? Best Deal In Town.

I Have Been Curious About Haiti For Many Years. The History Of The Country Is As Fascinating As It Is Turbulent.

Shirley Sherrod Seems Like A Good And Dedicated Person.

In Fact, Every Place I've Been To In Africa Has A Nice Part, But You See The Downside. Calcutta , Parts Of Central And South America , I've Seen A Lot Of Dead Bodies And A Lot Of Sad Poverty And Just Obliteration.

The Iron Is The Best Antidepressant I Have Ever Found.

Lifting Weights

I Just Travel The World With My Backpack And My Cameras And A Bunch Of Clif Bars.

It Wasn't Until My Late Twenties That I Learned That By Working Out I Had Given Myself A Great Gift. I Learned That Nothing Good Comes Without Work And A Certain Amount Of Pain. When I Finish A Set That Leaves Me Shaking, I Know More About Myself. When Something Gets Bad, I Know It Can't Be As Bad As That Workout.

Look, It's A Monster. He's Walking Alone. Look, He's Pulling Something Out Of His Pocket. He Threw It On The Ground. Let's Go See What It Is. It's A Black Box. You Open It... Ok... Look, It's Sorrow, Misery And Pain. It's Loneliness And Longing. Boy, He'll Be Sorry He Lost These.

Amy Winehouse Was Not A Person I Ever Met, And I Can't Say That I Am Overly Conversant In All Of Her Music. I Do Have Her Albums, And Years Ago, When I First Heard Her Sing, I Thought She Was Extraordinary. The Tone Of Her Voice, Her Phrasing, Her Raw Appearance - These Qualities Were Extremely Captivating To Me.

Trying To Write Music, Be In A Band And Keep It All Happening Is One Of The Hardest, Morale-destroying, Heartbreaking Things You Will Ever Try To Do - And That's When It's Going Well.

In The Theory Of Evolution There Is No Talk Of God And No Bibles Are Used. They're Not Looking For Higher Powers, Extraterrestrials, Or Anything Else That Could Be Found In The Science Fiction Section, Because They Are Not Dealing With Fiction.

Theory Of Evolution

I'd Like To Be A Better Writer, But I Have No Dreams To Direct Or Do A Screenplay. And I'd Love To Have A Big Starring Role In A Movie Because The Paycheck Would Be Bigger. That's The Only Reason I Do Films.

Humans Will Take A Rain Forest And Lose It And Cover It With Concrete. They Will Take The Woods And Turn It Into A Parking Garage And I Am Not Saying That's Bad. I Am Just Saying That's What We Do. We Occupy The Planet With A Vengeance. We Seek To Dominate It.

We Americans Look Funny When We're In France Because We Don't Travel, We Are Fairly Un-cultured Whereas Europeans Go To Africa All The Time Because It's Right There.

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.

It Is Impossible, After A Certain Point, To Go Back To A Previous Way Of Life, A Previous Way Of Thinking.

Being In New York Is An Almost Overwhelming Experience. While Washington, D.c., Is My Favorite American City, I Regard New York City As The Most Amazing City In The World. No Other Comes Close. It Is An Incredible, Inexhaustible Engine.

I Have Healthy Disagreements With Political Parties I'm Not Aligned With, But I Don't Think It Should Be To The Point Where We're Cursing And Trying To Strangle Each Other.

Misery, Depression, Elation All Mine, Refine Confinement All My Design.

My Unconditional Sure Thing Is That I Don't Have One.

Every Summer, Around Late July And Into August, I Find Myself In Europe, Performing At Any Festival That Will Have Me.

I Am A Veteran Of The War On Christmas. I Am Just Emerging From A Battlefield Strewn With Dead Trees And Torn Shreds Of Brightly Colored Wrapping Paper.

I Think That America Certainly Has Racism, I Think That Any Industrialized Country Does. But When You See How Many Million Fans Barack Obama Has Who Are Not Black, It Would Lead One To The Conclusion That Millions Of Americans Are In Fact Not Burdened By The Albatross Of Racism.

The Only Thing Worse Than The Pastor Terry Jones Scheduled Koran Burning Is The Fact That He Canceled The Proposed Event.

To Get A Human Through A Life, Lives Of Broken Bones, Knock-me-over-with-a-feather Susceptibility To Myriad Viruses, And Whatever Else Might Befall Someone Will Cost Money.

Keep Me Preoccupied Keep Me Busy, Busy, Busy So I Won't Have To Think I Don't Want To Think Because It Only Brings Me Pain I Just Keep Running Away From My Problems Keep Me Busy Give Me A Million Things To Do So I Can Keep Running Away From Myself.

I Definitely Learned A Lesson This Time. I Know That I Can Be Broken. I Am Not As Tough As I Thought. I See It Now. At This Point, It's The Only Thing Good That Came Out Of All Of This. I Know Myself Better Now And Know What I Have To Do.

I Need To Do Things On My Own, Need To Be Left Alone.

Sometimes You Can Get So Far In Yourself That You Don't Know Who You Are.

I Mean I Appreciate Fan Mail And That The People Like What I Am Doing But I Can't Answer It. If I Would Answer 25 Letters A Day I Would Be Just A Guy Answering Mail And Not An Artist Anymore.

Here In This Moment We Are Beautiful, Nocturnal Creatures And Our Thoughts And Words Are Jewels Guarded By The Moon.

Life Will Not Break Your Heart. It'll Crush It.

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

I Don't Cuss In Songs. It's Too Easy.

Joe Strummer, Johnny Rotten, And Ian Mackaye Were All People Who Really Made Me See Things Differently.

We're At Peak Oil, Peak Water, Peak Resources, And So Either We Figure It Out And Let Science Lead Or We Head Down A Very Bad, Dark Trail To Where A Lot Of People Aren't Going To Make It.

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."

I Think There Will Always Be Great New Music And Bands. As Long As There's People Around, There's Going To Be Great Music. I Think There's Bands Like Wolf Eyes, Q & Not U, The Evens And Many Others That Are Doing Great Stuff. The Music That Doesn't Please You, You Just Don't Listen. No One Makes Me Listen To Nickelback, So Long May They Wave.

Am I Self-righteous? Why Not? It's Not Like I Can Count On You To Be Righteous For Me.

No Matter How Rough Things Can Be At Times, Many Americans Are Optimistic And On The Move.

Why Let Your Fury Lay Deep Inside You, Sullenly Boiling Your Blood Into Silent Steam And Griding Your Bones To Dust? I It Not Better To Thrust It Out With Great Velocity From Every Pore, With Your Every Action? Let Your Actions Speak Your Legend. The Physical Is The Manifestation Of The Spirit. Let Your Spirit Be Teeming With Fury. Let Your Strength Be Unusual And Controlled. 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.

We Came To The End, We Found Nothing. Nothing!!! And We Cursed Because We Were Hoping For So Much Less.

My Laptop Seems To Know Where I Am, Even If I Don't. My Cellphone Asks Me If I Want Directions To Anywhere From The Spot I Am Standing In. I Buy A Record Online And Amazon.com Sends Me Letters, Telling Me That People Who Bought What I Bought Also Bought These Other Records.

It's Hard To Get Along With People. As Much As You Try To Like Them And Accept Them As Individuals, It Becomes Difficult Because They Keep Getting Out Of Line And Wasting Your Time.

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.

One Of The Most Prevalent And Undermentioned Genres Of Music Is What Is Known As Noise. You Can Find It All Over The World Happening In Basements, Small Venues And Even Some Festivals. Often Blown Off Or Belittled By Critics, The Form For The Most Part Goes Unheard And Unnoticed.

Questioning Anything And Everything, To Me, Is Punk Rock.

Anything And Everything

Not That The Writers Weren't Good. I Believe In Those Books And Those Writers Very Much. It's Just That In The Climate It's Really Hard To Keep The Lights On And The Doors Open When You're Selling Poetry And Literature That Appeals To A Fringe Audience.

I Live My Life Through The Prism Of Capitalism And Physiological Limits And Eventualities.

One Of The Odd Enjoyments In Life Is To Be Alone In A Room Full Of People. To Have Them There As Unknowing Human Filler In Your Wide Shot.

Imagine A 15-year-old Kid Saying, 'i Have Two Moms - It's Cool.' I Don't Fear That At All.

Songs Sung Under Duress Are Often Very Powerful.

The Visceral Nature Of Hard Rock Music, The Fact That You Can Have This Sledge Hammering Sound - And That You Can Hook A Lyric Up And A Feeling Up To Something And Make The Lyric Jump Into This Machine That Crushes. That Has Always Been Really Attractive To Me, That Kind Of Power.

I Just Write What I Think Is Good And Keep It At A Thousand Words.

I Don't Get A Rush From Anything. I Did Music As Hard As I Could. Acting For Me At Least, Is A Far More Restrained Performance Than Music. It Requires A Lot Of Skill And Discipline. I'm Not Any Good At It But I Enjoy Trying To Be Good At It.

When I Read That Malaysia Airlines Flight Mh370 Had Disappeared - A State-of-the-art Boeing 777, Said To Be An Incredibly Safe Way To Travel - I Waited Patiently For The Chance To Learn What Happened.

Young, Gay And Stuck In Arkansas? Sounds Like A Horror Flick.

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Mark-Paul Gosselaar

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