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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.

-Henry Rollins

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I Look At Pictures

Henry Rollins

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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.

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I Love To Go On Stage And Sing.

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 Thought That Change You Can See And Feel Is Best.

The First Several Years Of My Life Were Used To Upload Incredible Amounts Of Fear, And I Just Became Afraid Of Everything. I Was Afraid Of My Parents, Afraid Of My Classmates, Afraid Of The Streets Of Washington, D.c. I Would Flinch At Every Gesture.

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

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

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

If I Could Go To Kabul And Not Die, I Would Go Back To Afghanistan As Soon As I Could. And, That Was The Most Interesting Place That I've Been To.

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.

I'm A Big Fan Of The American Tapes Label. But That's Very Hard To Keep A Grip On That Because You Blink Your Eyes And They've Released Three Records, All Of Which Are Limited Edition, All Sold At One Show. So You Have To Follow In Drips And Drops On Ebay, Which I Do.

When The Movie Comes Out, What Anybody Thinks Of It Doesn't Really Matter To Me. I Don't Go To The Wrap Party. I Don't Go To The Premiere.

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

George Zimmerman Is A Foot Soldier In A Rapidly Privatizing Country. He Is A New Centurion Of 21st-century America. Law Enforcement Is Tied Down By The Strictures Of, Well, The Law. There Is Only 'so Much They Can Do' To Take Care Of The 'problem.'

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.

The Wacken Festival Started More Than 20 Years Ago With Just A Few Hundred People In Attendance. Tickets Now Sell Out Before The Lineup Is Announced.

If You Paid Americans A Living Wage, They Would Be Able To Pay For Products Made By Americans In America.

I Think More Tolerance, More People Having More Access To A Chance To Be Literate, And A Chance To Stay Healthy Makes For A More Peaceful Planet.

It's One Thing To Buy A Copy Of 'atlas Shrugged.' You Actually Have To Read It To Get Anything Out Of It.

If I Lose The Light Of The Sun, I Will Write By Candlelight, Moonlight, No Light. If I Lose Paper And Ink, I Will Write In Blood On Forgotten Walls. I Will Write Always. I Will Capture Nights All Over The World And Bring Them To You

The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 Was Vigorously And Vociferously Opposed By The Southern States. President Lyndon B. Johnson Signed It Into Law Nonetheless.

When Someone Asks You, 'what's Punk?' My Reply Is, 'if You Have To Ask, You're Never Going To Know.'

The Fact Is That I Am Always Thinking Of Something To Build. A New Book, Radio Show, Plans For A Trip Somewhere. I Am Not A Very Happy Person But I Feel Pretty Even When I Am Working, So I Guess That Is How I Am Wired.

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

To Justify Being Listened To, I Try To Be As Well Informed As I Can. Hence, The Travel. Reading Is Good Too. Reading Gets You Part Way There, And I Do Read Pretty Voraciously For A Guy Who's Trying To Write So Much.

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

A Rose Trapped Inside A Fist.

Scott Asheton Was A Brilliant Drummer, A Natural Musician.

I Like The Idea Of Going Out With A Woman And Not Doing Anything, And Just Eating Dinner And Talking, And That's Cool, Too. So, Someone Might Look At Me And Say, "no Way, Man. He's Just Banging Strippers." And I Do That, But Not All The Time.

When You're Going Into An Employment Environment That Looks Pretty Scary, It Is Easy To Lose Your Moral Compass, Your Decency, Your Sense Of Civility And Your Sense Of Community.

Collecting Records Is, For Many, Beyond A Hobby.

If I'm Jetlagging, And I've Missed Some Meals, And It Gets To That Point In A Movie That You're Supposed To Cry, I'll Let My Defences Down From Around My Inherent Standing Level Of Cynicism, And I'll Cry.

You Can't Get Your Head Around Something If You're Yelling.

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

Bono Actually Gets A Lot Of Substantial Work Done. The Guy Really Does Put A Lot Of Things Together And, While I'm Not A Fan Of His Music, I Greatly Applaud His Humanitarian Efforts.

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.

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.

Don't Let Despair Mutate Your Flesh Look At My Twisted Stumps Of Thought See The Fingers, Listen To The Voice I Am Slowly Becoming The End Of The Line.

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

Songs Sung Under Duress Are Often Very Powerful.

I Do My Best To Limit The Amount Of Compromise In My Life So I Have More Time To Do What I Want. Not Hanging Out With Many People Really Helps. I Am Not A People Person And I Spend A Great Deal Of Time On My Own And In This Environment, I Get A Lot Done.

I Used To Love You I Still Do So Selfish I Love The Old You The You That Didnt Shoot Drugs ...the You That Didnt Get Beat On By Men You Laugh In My Face And Call Me A Fool But Its True I Still Love You Sometimes,i Can See The Old You When Your Eyes Flash When You Almost Look Alive

Knowledge Without Mileage Equals Bullshit.

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.

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.

Some Soldier Will Say, 'you Know, Sir, You And I Have Some Political Disagreements, But I'm Glad You Came All The Way Out Here.' And You Know, You Say, 'well, Maybe One Day You'll See The Light But I'm Glad To Be Out Here With You.'

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.

I Would Like Go To Palestine And Interview People There About What Their Lives Are Like; Same Thing In Iran.

What Goes Best With A Cup Of Coffee? Another Cup.

How Memories Lie To Us. How Time Coats The Ordinary With Gold. How It Breaks The Heart To Go Back And Attempt To Re-live Them. How Crushed We Are When We Discover That The Gold Was Merely Gold-plating Thinly Coated Over Lead, Chalk And Peeling Paint.

When You're Little And You Don't Have Much Dough, You Have To Innovate. You Have To Be Sharp.

I Want To Learn More About The World. It Makes Me Want To Get Up And Go.

I Know I Was A Generic Dysfunctional Child, But I Think A Lot Of People Are.

Each Year, Every City In The World That Can Should Have A Multiday Festival. More People Meeting Each Other, Digging New Types Of Music, New Foods, New Ideas. You Want To Stop Having So Many Wars? This Could Be A Step In The Right Direction.

If I Hear, 'be Afraid Of Tehran,' I'm Like, 'i'd Better Go To Tehran.'

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

I Do A Lot Of Walking Around In Game Parks, Rain Forests, Places Like That, But It's Not Like I'm Camping In Them As Much As My Day Walks. I've Done That All Over The World, Not Like With A Backpack On My Back Living Out In The Woods For Several Days. When I Travel Abroad, It's More The City That Captures My Interest.

Lou Reed's Music Has Been In The Lives Of Millions Of People All Over The World For Decades. He Had A Truly Universal Presence And Was Respected By Musicians Across All Genres.

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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.

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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.

We're Just Very Belligerent, And I'm Not Trying To Put Americans Down, By And Large I Think We're Nice People, But We Operate With The Information We're Given And We Are Limited By The Ignorance That Is Kind Of Injected Into The Media And Into The Tv Shows.

The Only Thing About Sanctions Is That, Like A Lot Of Drone Strikes, There Are Countless Unintended Victims. Cutting Off Aid To Uganda Only Increases The Pain There.

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

We Humans Are Hard To Deal With. We Are A Loud, Complex And Demanding Bunch. Often, We Are Best Dealt With From A Safe Distance And For Only Brief Periods Of Time. This Could Be Why A Lot Of Marriages Fail.

Sometimes It Seems The Harder You Try To Hold Onto Something Or Someone The More It Wants To Get Away. You Feel Like Some Kind Of Criminal For Having Felt, For Having Wanted. For Having Wanted To Be Wanted. It Confuses You Because You Think That Your Feelings Were Wrong And It Makes You Feel So Small Because It’s So Hard To Keep It Inside When You Let It Out And It Doesn’t Come Back. You’re Left So Alone That You Can’t Explain.

Ramones Music Has A Pavlovian Effect On Me - The Song Starts, And The World Blurs Around The Sound.

I Believe That Contentment Or Any Sustained Period Of Joy That Doesn't Inspire Thought That Leads To Action Almost Immediately Is Useless.

There're Some Places That Are More Difficult Or Dangerous To Navigate And I Wouldn't Look Forward To Going Back. Like I'd Much Rather Go Back To Afghanistan - Which Fascinates Me - Quicker Than I'd Go Back To Spend A Week Walking Around Nairobi, Kenya, Which Is A Great And Easy Way To Get Yourself Killed.

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.

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.

There's No Rule That You Have To Like Henry Rollins The Musician Or The Actor.

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.

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

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

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.

I Wonder If The Guy At The Gun Store Would Give Me A Discount On The Bullets I'll Need If I Told Him What I Was Up To.

If It's A Man's World, As They Say, Then Men, Your World Is A Poorly Run Carnage Fest.

To Hate Is To Show You Still Care, Who Needs That, Focus On What's Really Important.

When You Have To Work With And Exist Amongst Cynical, Burned-out Personnel On A Set, It Doesn't Matter What You're Shooting Or How Much You're Being Paid - It's Not Worth It.

If I Was A Woman These Days, I'd Be Killing Motherfuckers. My Handgun Would Never Cool And My Hands Would Be Covered In Testicular Blood. I Would Have A Horrible Reputation With A Lot Of Men Because I Would Be Calling Them On Their Weak Bullshit Left And Right.

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

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.

I Don't Have Any Spiritual Anything.you Shoot A Guy With A Gun, He Dies. You Step On A Bug, The Bug Dies. There Is No Heaven For Me And No Hell. And Certainly Not Any Karma.

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

If American Forces Leave Afghanistan, The Taliban Is Going To Do What To America? Don't Say You're Worried About What They Will Do To The Afghan People. If That Was America's Concern, America's Operational Presence There Would Be Much Different.

I'll Be Here Tomorrow If I Can Make It Through Today.

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.

'fox News' Will One Day Come To An End. Led Zeppelin Will Not. It's As Simple As That.

I Think It's Fantastic When The Young Enrage Their Elders. I Really Do Believe That If It's Too Loud, You Are Indeed Too Old, And That If It Has Been Standing For Too Long, It Needs A Thorough Inspection.

I Can Die Anytime I Want. I Wish I Could Do The Same With Life.

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

We Occupy The Planet With A Vengeance. We Seek To Dominate It.

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

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.

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.'

People Like Jefferson, Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony And M. L. K. Are Larger Than Life To Me. I Find Myself Staring At Photographs Of Lincoln Almost In Disbelief That He Was A Man Who Walked The Earth And Not Merely Some Fiction Writer's Creation.

You Can Pass All The Gun Legislation You Want. None Of It Will Make Me Feel Any More Or Less Safe Than I Do Right At This Moment.

When I Die, The World Dies With Me. I'd Really Like To Leave It Better Than How I Found It And I'm Doing What I Can To Effect That.

Pizza Makes Me Think That Anything Is Possible.

Anything Is Possible

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.

I Don't Want To Go With The Smooth Skin And The Calm Brow. I Hope I End Up A Blithering Idiot Cursing The Sun - Hallucinating, Screaming, Giving Obscene And Inane Lectures On Street Corners And Public Parks.

I Know You’ll Never Love Me But Maybe You’ll Stay For Awhile.

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 Would Never Be Innovative Enough To "blaze My Own Trail," I'm Just Trying To Be Interesting. So I Don't Look To Anyone Else As Far As Inspiration.

For Me The Music Is Not So Much Anger As Much As It Is Of Passion. And I've Always Associated That Kind Of Intense Emotional Output With Music Just Because The Nature Of The Music That's Attracted Me As Far As Live.

Dinosaur Jr. In Their Live Capacity Are A Band That Put Me In A State Of Such Overwhelming Rock That It Often Takes Quite A While To Come Down.

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.

Between The Dinosaur Jr. Albums And His Recent Solo Albums, 'several Shades Of Why' And 'heavy Blanket,' J Mascis Is Emerging As One Of The Last Men From All That '80s Indie Madness, Still Writing Songs That You Want To Listen To Over And Over.

I Don't Want To Fail The Audience. I Don't Want To Let Them Down.

I Have Lived In Public As A Somewhat Recognizable Person Since I Was A Teenager. Emails I Answer End Up Posted On Sites; Pictures Of Me And Someone I Just Met, Taken By A Cellphone, Literally Number In The Thousands And Are Easily Accessed.

My First Introduction To African Music Was By My Mother, Who Bought The 'pata Pata' Album By The Great Miriam Makeba When It Came Out. Now That Is An Album. What A Voice.

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

I've Enjoyed, To A Certain Extent, Any Country I've Been In, Of Course Like Serbia And Croatia Can Be Very Restrictive And Oppressive, And Frustrating, But They're Still Very Beautiful.

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 Believe In North, South, East, West, The Seasons, Life And Death, Geography. That Which Is Provable, Absolute And Most Of All, Functional. I Believe In Things That Can Kill Me.

There's Something About Being Under-rested And Knowing That The Situation Is Going To Remain That Way For Quite Some Time That Makes Things More Meaningful.

I Can Say That American Men And Women In The Military Are Damn Impressive.

All By Yourself, Unable To Express The Pain Of Your Distress With Your Deeper Inside. You Alienate Yourself And Everybody Else.

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.

I Have Watched Independent Record Stores Evaporate All Over America And Europe. That's Why I Go Into As Many As I Can And Buy Records Whenever Possible. If We Lose The Independent Record Store, We Lose Big. Every Time You Buy Your Records At One Of These Places, It's A Blow To The Empire.

I Don't Wish To Be Anything More Or Less Than What I Am. If This Is How It Is, Then So Be It.

Strength Is The Product Of Struggle, You Must Do What Others Don't To Achieve What Others Won't.

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.

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?

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

The Iron Is The Best Antidepressant I Have Ever Found.

Lifting Weights

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

A Lot Of Americans Don't Have A Passport, Never Will Have A Passport. Not Only Will They Not Travel, They Don't Want To Travel.

I Beg Young People To Travel. If You Don't Have A Passport, Get One. Take A Summer, Get A Backpack And Go To Delhi, Go To Saigon, Go To Bangkok, Go To Kenya. Have Your Mind Blown. Eat Interesting Food. Dig Some Interesting People. Have An Adventure. Be Careful. Come Back And You're Going To See Your Country Differently, You're Going To See Your President Differently, No Matter Who It Is. Music, Culture, Food, Water. Your Showers Will Become Shorter. You're Going To Get A Sense Of What Globalization Looks Like.

When Black Flag And Doa And All Those Bands Were Touring In The Early 80s, It Was Kind Of A Forest And You Just Kind Of Got Your Way Through It. Now It's Like A Six Lane Highway With Starbucks Every Twenty Meters. That's Just Civilization.

When I Think Of Mick Jagger Still Singing That He Can't Get Any Satisfaction In Over Forty Years Of Being In The Rolling Stones, I Have To Conclude That He's Either Lying Or Not All That Bright.

I'd Love To Talk To Janeane Garafalo Or Randi Rhodes Or Stephanie Miller From Air America. I'm An Air American Junkie; I Listen To Them Every Day.

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.

I Don't Try To Be Angry To Prove Something. I Wouldn't Try To Intimidate You For Any Reason Unless You Were Trying To Intimidate Me, And Then I Would Show You That You Can't Do That To Me.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I Beg Young People To Travel.

I Was In Pakistan In Islamabad When Bhutto Was Assassinated, And The Next Day, You Know, There's Just Plumes Of Smoke Everywhere. I Mean, Islamabad Is On Fire.

For Many Years, I Tried To Make New Year's Resolutions. I Made Lists And Shot For Great Heights: I Would Show Altruism And Exert Moral Strength, Patience And All Those Other Great Attributes.

I Want To Meet A Woman That Will Make Me Stop And Listen To What She Has To Say. I Want A Woman Who Will Make My Jaw Drop In Awe. A Woman That Has Little Time For Me. One Who Does Not Throw Herself At Me. One Who Respects Herself Who Has A Sense Of Herself. Where Is She

I'm Actually On The Twitter Like All Those Crazy Young Kids Are, And If I'm Going To Do An In-store Appearance Or I Post Something On My Website, I Tweet These Followers, A Word I Don't Like So Much, And Over 50,000 People Go, Like, 'okay, I Got It.'

I Think It's Important To Have Some Documentation Of The Past.

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 Cuss In Songs. It's Too Easy.

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.

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

Now You See How You Are, The Wisdom Mixed In With All The Scars.

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

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.

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

He Looked At Her Something Turned Cancerous He Was In Love.

No Time For Drug Addiction, No Time For Smoke Or Booze. Too Strong For A Shortened Life Span, I've Got No Time To Lose.

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.

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

You Can Still Function As A Living Ruin.

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

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

I Have No Artistic Sensibilities. I Wish I Did. It Is Probably Really Cool. I Have Work Habits And Work Ethic. For Me, All The Things I Do Are Jobs.

Maybe Some Things Are Better Left Broken And Scattered Veiled In Darkness, Secret Bitterness And Self-doubt I Should Have Known Better Than To Start Something That I Couldn't Finish That I Couldn't Care About That I Couldn't Remember Starting In The First Place I Don't Want To Know You You Went Years Without Me You Might As Well Keep Going.

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

I Would Like To Get Out To The Region In The Caspian Sea. I Would Like To Go There. I Would Like To Get To Darfur. I Would Like To Get To Khartoum In Northern Sudan. I Would Like To Get To Zimbabwe. I Would Like To Go Back To North Korea, If I Could. I Would Like To Go To Yemen. I Would Like To Get To Kashmir. Most Of Those Destinations I Will Get To.

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.

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

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

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

I'd Rather Work On My Radio Show, Which No One Hears But I Put About Eight Hours Of Programming And Writing Into It For Those 30 People Who Do Tune In.

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.

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

Texas Is A Hotbed Of Insanely Good Bands And Musicians.

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.

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

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.

When The Iron Doesn't Want To Come Off The Mat, It's The Kindest Thing It Can Do For You. If It Flew Up And Went Through The Ceiling, It Wouldn't Teach You Anything.

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.

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.

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

With Writing, There Are Multiple Drafts. On Stage, There Is One Take. I Do A Lot Of Preparation For Shows, So, For The Most Part, What You Hear Me Say Is Pretty Much What I Wanted To Get At.

In My World There Would Be As Many Public Libraries As There Are Starbucks.

Smart People Make Good Choices. They Dig Science And Say 'no' To The Invasion Of Sovereign Nations For The Pleasure Of Corporations.

You Never Have To Listen To A Famous Person, It's An Elective.

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.

Love Is Self Deception. I Am A Living Creature. Hate Is Only Self Love. I Am A Double Feature.

I Love Being A Storyteller. I Love Telling Stories.

Telling Stories

It's Hard To Get People At A Record Company To Talk About Music. They Don't Seem To Want To Talk About Music, It's All Marketing, And That's Part Of A Record, You Gotta Get It Out There, People Have Gotta Hear It, But You Could Do It In A Way That's Not Repulsive.

The Most Interesting Place By Far Was Afghanistan. Just Because It Is A Place That I Cannot See Myself Living. The Hardness Of The People And The History Of The Country Is Just So Completely Intense.

August, The Summer's Last Messenger Of Misery, Is A Hollow Actor.

I Continually Remind Myself To Live By A Code. It's Very Important To Me. I've Got A Bad Temper.

My Love Runs Deeper Than The Wounds.

Literally Thousands Of Lawsuits Have Been Filed Against The Nfl By Retired Players, Many Of Whom Say That Information On Brain Injury In Football Was Withheld From Them.

It's Always Been Impressive To Me When Someone Can Really Do What They Want Onstage. The Audience Has Confidence In The Performer And The Performer Has Confidence In The Crowd.

I Like Boring Black And White Films With Subtitles. I'm Basically A Drip.

Black And White

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

I Hate It When Men Go To Strip Bars. It Lowers The Rest Of Us That Know If A Man Has To Pay To See A Woman Naked, He Is A Loser And Probably Should Get Weeded Out.

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

I Have Had A Number Of Less-than-enviable Moments In My Life When Dealing With Other People. I Won't Attempt To Blunt That By Saying I Am Not The Only One.

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