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I Tend To Gravitate To The Darkest Or Most Obscure Part Of Any Venue In An Effort To Have My Own Space To Experience The Music On My Own, Free From Unwanted Conversations And Other Distractions.

-Henry Rollins

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I Tend To Gravitate

Henry Rollins

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I Tend To Gravitate To The Darkest Or Most Obscure Part Of Any Venue In An Effort To Have My Own Space To Experience The Music On My Own, Free From Unwanted Conversations And Other Distractions.

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Almost All Human Who Can Form A Sentence Will Eventually Let You In On The Fact That Their Lives Are Very Difficult And Sometimes Very Hard To Manage.

Consumerism Is At Once The Engine Of America And Simultaneously One Of The Most Revealing Indicators Of Our Collective Shallowness.

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

Music Keeps You Young. Having Music In Your Life Keeps You Open To Things.

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

Nietzsche, Who You Don't Spend Too Much Time With After The Age Of Seventeen, Did Have That One Great Line About "he Who Stares Into The Abyss Must Know That The Abyss Also Stares Into Him" And I Never Really Understood That Until My Friend Got Killed And You Really Get Your Head Around The Idea Of What Horror Means. It's A Truly Awful Thing, To Really, Kind Of Have That Understanding Of Things And When You Really Peer Into That.

A Text Conversation Is A Short Exchange Of Often Grossly Truncated Language That Corresponds To A Thought Made All The More Shallow By The Process.

The Blues Is Losing Someone You Love And Not Having Enough Money To Immerse Yourself In Drink.

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

For Many Years, My Favorite Director Has Been The Japanese Giant Akira Kurosawa.

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

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.

I See Violence In Myself; I've Done Some Pretty Violent Things In My Lifetime And I've Been Around Some Pretty Severe Violence All The Way Up To Homicide.

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.

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.

The Lowest Stress Environment Is The Radio Show. I Am Not On Camera And I Can Let The Music Do The Talking. The Rest Is More Highly Pressurized Or In The Case Of Writing, Time Intensive Task. I Say Yes To All Of It And Like All Of It But The Radio Show, By Nature Of What It Is, Is The Least Hassle.

I Think There Is Something Very Interesting About People Who Live Day To Day In An Environment Where They Could Get Taken Out By A Wild Animal. There Has To Be Some Kind Respect That Is Derived From That Relationship.

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.

Spring And Fall, Those Are Very Inspiring Times Of The Year For Me.

'smile' Is Perhaps The Beach Boys' Most Legendary Album. It Was Recorded In 1966 And 1967 But Only Saw A Formal Release In 2011. That's A Long Time To Wait For What Was Said To Be Brian Wilson's Masterpiece.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 Know That Collector Types Can Be A Pain In The Neck And Seem Perpetually Frozen In Time - Or At Least In Their Parents' Basement - But Someone Has To Look Out For The Past, Lest It Slip Away Forever.

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.

There's Nothing New About The Government Protecting Corporations And Calling It The Freeing Of The World Or Bringing Democracy To Bereft Nations.

When I Am In Africa, I Realize I Don't Know Much, Have Not Seen Much, And There's A Lot To Be Done.

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.

I'm Most Comfortable On Stage.

There's No Retirement, There's Just A Few Years Of Non-work By The Fire With Someone Bringing You Some Tea And Relative Peace And Playing With The Grandchildren.

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

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 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.

I Don't Mean To Be Arrogant And I Really Appreciate My Fans But Talking About What I Am Doing Is Not Something I'm Good At. I Do What I Do And That's It. I Want To Get Back To My Work And Do More Of It Instead Of Talking About It.

Seasonal Change In Los Angeles Is Often A Very Subtle Thing. It's Not As If We Finally Stop Having To Shovel The Snow Out Of Our Driveways And Can Put Our Parkas Back In The Closet.

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.

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

America Is Off-the-hook Gay. I Will Not Go All Ann Coulter On You And Say, 'our Gays Are Better Than Their Gays,' But As Far As Countries Go, We Are In-your-face Gay.

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.

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.

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.

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

Russia Is Tough. The History, The Land, The People - Brutal.

What I Felt For You Was A Combination Of Respect And Affection. There Was A Closeness I Felt Through Intimate Interaction. The Affection Part Is All Over With. All That Remains Is The Respect. If I Put My Arms Around You And Told You That I Missed You, I Would Be Lying. You're Alright With Me And I Wish You Well. But You're Not Me And That Makes You One Of Them And You Can Only Get So Close.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.'

Most Poets Are Elitist Dregs More Concerned With Proving Their Skill With A Dictionary Than Communicating Ideas With Impact.

For Me, Jazz Will Always Be The Soundtrack Of The Civil Rights Movement.

If You Have An Idea Of What You Want To Do In Your Future, You Must Go At It With Almost Monastic Obsession. [...] You Have To Go At It Single-mindedly And Let Nothing Get In Your Way.

Muscle Mass Does Not Always Equal Strength. Strength Is Kindness And Sensitivity. Strength Is Understanding That Your Power Is Both Physical And Emotional. That It Comes From The Body And The Mind. And The Heart.

All I Can Do Is Just Do Stuff While I Am Alive And Hopefully That Track Record Will Speak For Itself.

It Is Only Our Humanity That Can Deliver Us From The Brutality Of Our Achievements.

I Get Along With Australians Really Well. Everyone's Usually Really Cool, And It's Always A Drag To Leave.

Weakness Is What Brings Ignorance, Cheapness, Racism, Homophobia, Desperation, Cruelty, Brutality, All These Things That Will Keep A Society Chained To The Ground, One Foot Nailed To The Floor.

I Really Enjoy The Lattitude I Have With Being A Private Citizen. I Can Get A Lot Done. I Am Good With That.

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

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

The Kid Who Throws His Spaghetti From The High Chair Onto His Father's Face, He's Pushing Back. He's Sticking It To The Man As He Sees It. I Like That. So That Is Punk.

My Understanding Of First-degree Murder Is That Premeditation Needs To Be Proven.

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

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'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.

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

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 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.

Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela Had And Still Has Many Detractors.

While I Disagree With Our Presence In Iraq And Afghanistan, I Have Nothing But Respect And Admiration For The Men And Women Deployed In These Places.

People Are Best On Records And Books Because You Can Turn Them Off Or Put Them Back On The Shelf.

If You Listen To 'the Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' By Gil Scott-heron, That Album Is Dripping With Rage.

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.

Your Commander Would Never Lie To You. That's The Vice President's Job.

Creating Problems Is Easy. We Do It All The Time. Finding Solutions, Ones That Last And Produce Good Results, Requires Guts And Care.

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.

An Appreciation Of Animals Is Good For A Human, It Can Lead To A Better Understanding And Respect For All Living Things.

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

Somewhere Someone Is Thinking Of You. Someone Is Calling You An Angel. This Person Is Using Celestial Colors To Paint Your Image. Someone Is Making You Into A Vision So Beautiful That It Can Only Live In The Mind.

Thinking Of You

The Number Of People Who Are Actual Supporters Of Mr. Romney Could Very Well Be Less Than The Donner Party, Whose Members They Sadly Resemble In Many Ways.

I'm Just Shallow And Self-interested, And Don't Get Out Much Because I'm Afraid Of Real Commitments.

Humans Are Pretty Amazing At Living Pretty Much Anywhere And So That Makes Me Optimistic That Perhaps Humanity Will Be Able To Survive Itself, Because The Reality Is That We Are Going To Have Problems With Water In This Century.

If I Was Gay, There’d Be No Closet. You’d Never See The Closet I Came Out Of. Why? I Would Have Burned It For Kindling By The Time I Was Twelve! Because I Know, With All Certainty In My Mind, There’s Nothing Wrong With Being Gay And You Know It! And There’s Nothing Wrong With Being Into Chicks If You’re A Girl. And There’s Nothing Wrong With Being Into All Of It…. How Awesome Would It Be To Be Bisexual? To Just Walk Into A Room And Go ‘mmmm, Alright!!!!’

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.

The Destructive Power Of A Lie Is Stronger Than The Truth.

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

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

I Don't Mind The Boss. I Think He's An Honest Guy. I Have Some Of His Records, Not All Of Them. I've Met A Couple Of The E-street Guys, And They Seem Really Cool.

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.

Do It Or Don't. It's Amazing How Many Things In Life Are That Easy.

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

I Think In Rural Settings, People Have A Different Appreciation For Animals Than Might The City Dweller. In Parts Of India Where Poisonous Snake Bite Is Common, People Have A Much Different Value System. I Live In A City. I'm Not Thinking About Wolves, Lions, Etc.

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.

If I'm In L.a. For Longer Than 20 Days, I'm Looking For Work, Because I Don't Do Vacations.

Looking For Work

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.

As Miserable As Life May Be I Hold It Pretty Precious

In My Many Trips To South Africa, I Have Met And Spoken To A Lot Of People There, And They All Seem To Find Apartheid As Repellent As You Would.

Break From Self Rejection, Try Some Introspection.

I Will Take The Acting Work When I Can Get It. I Am Not Really An Actor, That's Always Apparent But It's Work And I'll Take It And Am Always Glad For It.

Trayvon Martin Did Not Need To Die.

I Consider Any Gun That Can Chamber A Round And Send A Projectile Down Its Barrel At A High Rate Of Speed Into My Body - Causing Me Injury Or Death - To Be An Assault Weapon.

Assault Weapons

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

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

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.

'the Great Gatsby' Is A Book I Have Read A Few Times, And It Seems To Get Heavier Every Time I Come To Visit.

The Opportunity To Write For The 'l.a. Weekly' Has Been One Of The Better Breaks That Has Come My Way In A Long Time.

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.

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

Horror Jolts Me When I Look At One Of You And See A Pair Of Beautiful Eyes That Make Me Think Your Mind Might Contain A World That Could Hold Me As The Bolts Shake Loose And Fly From My Frame.

Let's Pretend My Career In Music Is A Bell. Whether You Like My Music Or Not Is Up To You. But You've Got To Admit I Rang That Bell Pretty Hard And Pretty Often.

Voting Is Completely Important. People In America Think Democracy Is A Given. I Think Of It As An Ecosystem, And What Gets In The Way Of It Is Politicians And Apathy.

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.'

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

It'll Destroy You If You Try To Make It Mean Anything To Anyone But Yourself.

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.

When I See The Hatred Exacted At Mr. Obama - You Know, He Lowered Your Taxes, Killed Your Number One Bad Guy And Got Your Guys Out Of Iraq - I Don't Understand Why He Seems To Inflame People So Much. You Know, Unless, Unless There's A Race Problem.

Life Is Weird, Great And Dangerous.

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

I Am A White Guy In America With An Education, Albeit High School, But A Pretty Good One. Another Guy From A Different Demographic Or Different Ethnicity In America Can Look At Me And Say, "you Take A Lot For Granted." Well... Okay. I Just Live In A White Male American Reality, Where I Hear You But I Don't Know If I Necessarily Read You.

If The Truth Is Told How I Want To Be Remembered... As Someone Who Cared. Someone Who Worked Really Hard And Someone Who Didn't Sit Around.

I Would Like To Become A Better Photographer. I'm Working On That.

Hopefully, One Enhances [when Growing Older] His Sense Of Humor. As He Approaches 50, He'll Need All The Humor He Can Get.

The More You Own, The More It Owns You.

I Have A House, I Try To Spend As Little Time In It As Possible. Not Always Easy On The Mind And Body, But It's How I Got Myself To 80-plus Countries. This Kind Of Routine Forces One To Reinvent And Improvise. The Older I Get, The More Important This Is To Me.

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.

Every Year, August Lashes Out In Volcanic Fury, Rising With The Din Of Morning Traffic, Its Great Metallic Wings Smashing Against The Ground, Heating The Air With Ever-increasing Intensity.

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

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

I'm So Burned Out, The Only Person I Can Stand Is Myself. I'm The Only One I Would Put Through This. Wheels And Wings, The Ride Is Everything. I'm All I've Got. I'm All I Can Take. Another Day Has Destroyed A Part Of Me. So Far So Good.

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

Probably Over Half Of America Does Not Have A Passport. If Young People Could Spend Two Weeks Of Their Life In India Or Pick An African Country To Go To For 2-3 Weeks And Really See How Life Can Be. That Might Be A Real Good Thing Because I Think They Would See Things Even If The Trip Was A Nightmare. I Think They Might Understand More Of The Mechanics Of The World.

I Am Well Protected Too Locked Up Inside Myself To Get Free

Basically, Men Are Afraid Of Women And Can’t Handle The Fact That They Came Out Of The Same Thing They Spend The Rest Of Their Lives Trying To Get Back Into.

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.

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

I Have Never Experienced Anything Like Walking Out Onto The Stage Of An Oversold Venue And, Before The First Note Is Struck, Realizing That There Is Not Going To Be Enough Oxygen For All Of Us.

We Should Treat Each Other Better. Why In The Hell Would You Still Have Racism? This Ancient, Moronic Hatred? Why Does Our Foreign Policy Have To Always Involve So Much Death And So Much Death Of Innocent People As A Matter Of Course, To The Point To Where No One Bothers To Say Anything. I Guess A Lot Of People Don't Want To Move Forward. It's Frustrating At Times.

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.

Where There Is Young People And Vitality, You're Going To Find Punk Rock.

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

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.

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.

The Public Library System Of The United States Is Worth Preserving.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

If I Was Gay, There Would Be No Closet. You Would Never See The Closet I Came Out Of. Why? Because I'd Have Burned It For Kindling By The Time I Was Twelve... If I Was Gay, At This Stage Of The Game?age 37, Aging Alternative Icon?i'd Be Taking Out Ads.

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.

Books Are Cool, But Knowledge Without Mileage Doesn't Mean Anything To Me.

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.

Nelson Mandela Will Always Be The Face Of South Africa. The Traveler Passing Through The Country Will See Mandela's Face Almost Everywhere He Looks. Truly, The Man Is Omnipresent.

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

Live Music Is The Cure For What Ails Ya.

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

All I Have Is Me. Over-worked, Under-appreciated, Middle-aged, And Shriveled Up.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

My Mother, A Very Eclectic Listener, Had The First Doors Album And Gave It To Me When I Expressed Interest In The Band. It Was One Of The First Records I Ever Had. As The Years Passed, The Babysitters Who Used To Look After Me Would Bring Their Doors Albums To The Apartment, And That's How I Got To Hear Their Later Work.

I Never Thought I Was Right For Tv Or That Tv Was Right For Me.

My Love Runs Deeper Than The Wounds.

I'm A Liar. I'll Rip Your Mind Up. I'll Burn Your Soul, I'll Turn You In To Me.

I Don't Know If You Have Ever Seen The Woody Allen Film 'annie Hall,' But It Is, In A Way, To Los Angeles And 'hollywood' What 'this Is Spinal Tap' Is To Many Musicians.

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

I'm Not Artistic Nor Am I All That Creative.

I'm Not Like Paparazzi. I Never Force Myself On Anyone. I Always Ask, And Some Places Offer Money. And So I Try And Get These Photos To Give You, The Viewer, A Real Look At What I Was Seeing.

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.

I Feel Close To People Like Jimi Hendrix Because I Connect With His Music. Not The Man But What He Did.

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?

I Wonder What It's Like To Be From A State That Is Spread Across A Few Islands Way Out In The Pacific Ocean, Only Added To The United States In 1959. Not Only That But To Be The Birthplace Of America's First Black President? Pretty Cool, I Bet.

If Some Band Sucks, You're Going To Have To Find Out About It For Yourself, Because I Don't Have The Interest In Issuing Warnings.

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

When Was The Last Time You Wanted To Say It All To The Right Person To Have It All Come Out Right, To Surprise Yourself At How Together You Could Be. When Was The Last Time You Ever Met Someone Who Made You Want To Give It All To Them I Mean Give Yourself To Them. Where You Couldn't Express Yourself Enough - Like You Wanted To Cut Off One Of Your Arms To Be Understood. That's It - You Would Cut Your Head Off To Have Someone Understand You. You Know How Pointless That One Is. You Know How Many Times You've Smashed Yourself To Bits On The Rocks.

My Desires Are Foolish. The Things I Want Are Better Kept To Myself. The Hand Of Silence Is Steady. The Hard Blade Of Silence Is Clean Like Night. The Code Is Absolute. Silence Is Eternal And Patient. Silence Never Makes A Fool Of Itself Like I Have So Many Times.

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.

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

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

First Amendment

Thank You For Touching Me. Some Of The Only Moments Worth Living Were Spent With You. Not You Especially, The Collective You.

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.

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.

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

This Is My Own Little Rock Theory: In My Mind, Nirvana Slayed The Hair Bands. They Shot The Top Off The Poodles.

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.

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

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.

Technically Speaking, There Is No Music Whatsoever On A Cd. Lots Of Information, But No Music.

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

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Anatoli Boukreev

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