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My Mother Taught Me How To Read Very Early On And At School I Was Ahead Of Everyone In Class... Reading Was Always Something That I Liked Because I Could Do It Alone And I Was Alone A Lot Of The Time With My Mother Working The Hours She Did. Books Became My Friends Very Early On.

-Henry Rollins

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My Mother Taught Me

Henry Rollins

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My Mother Taught Me How To Read Very Early On And At School I Was Ahead Of Everyone In Class... Reading Was Always Something That I Liked Because I Could Do It Alone And I Was Alone A Lot Of The Time With My Mother Working The Hours She Did. Books Became My Friends Very Early On.

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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 Hip-hop Has Definitely Brought The Black Experience To White Kids More Than The Civil Rights Movement Did And More Than Any Teacher's Well-intentioned Lecture On Martin Luther King Did.

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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.

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

I Don't Mind Bees And Think We Are All The Better For Having Them Around. I Like The Taste Of Honey.

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

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There's A Lot Of Stuff Like That That American's Don't Know And Since A Lot Of Americans Don't Have A Passport, I'll Get A Passport For Them And Since A Lot Of Americans Don't Know What A War Looks Like Thirty, Forty Years Later And It's Still Doing Damage.

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I Believe That One Defines Oneself By Reinvention.

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I Would Like To Be Able To Gently Drift In And Out Of Existence When I Wanted To.

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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.

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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

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My Love Runs Deeper Than The Wounds.

My Feelings For You Shame Me Into Silence.

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

Scar Tissue Is Stronger Than Regular Tissue. Realize The Strength, Move On.

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Heat And Humidity

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The Iron Is The Best Antidepressant I Have Ever Found.

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Rock Is Ironic In That, Up To A Certain Point, You Can Get Better And Better At It If You Don't Mind Possibly Looking More And More Ridiculous.

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I Am Too Far Gone To Be Rehabilitated.

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

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

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

This Sounds Really Corny, But I Am A Slave To My Work, A Workaholic, And Glad Of It. I Like What I Do; This Is My Place, My Little Universe, One Of Them.

It's Difficult For Me To Be Around Anyone For Longer Than An Hour. Love, Death, Elation, Sorrow, I Just Don't Care All That Much About Any Of It. I Am At This Point, More Of An Observer/journalist.

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

I Like It Better That People Aren't Throwing Stuff At My Face And Trying To Fight Me On Stage. Like In The '80s, It Was Just Aggravating All The Time... I Have Scars From Cigars And Cigarettes On Me, Bic Pens, Burns From Cigarette Lighters, All That.

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

I 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.

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

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

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.

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 Feel Pain Everyday Of My Life. When You See Me Perform, It's That Pain You're Seeing Coming Out. I Put All My Emotions, All My Feelings, And My Body On The Line. People Hurt Me, I Hurt Myself - Mentally, Physically

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

To Anger Female Voters In America Is To Tread On The Tiger's Tail. Women Turn Out In Huge Numbers, And They Are Well Aware Of How Their Bodies Work And What They Need.

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.

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

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

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

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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.

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

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.

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

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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

Could It Be That Violence Is As Much A Part Of The American Identity As The Constitution, And A Vital Component To Its Economic Stability?

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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.

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

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

If The Constitution Was A Movie, The Preamble Would Be The Trailer, The First Amendment The Establishing Shot, The 13th The Crowd Pleaser And The 14th The Ultimate Hero Scene.

We Are Occupants. No One Has Any Lasting Purchase On Life Or On The Planet.

Every Single Record I Have Is A Fossil.

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

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.

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 Take The Work Seriously, Just Not Myself In It.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I Can't Imagine Being Sixty Years Of Age And Playing Music I Wrote When I Was In My Twenties. I Would Rather Sail The Sea Of Consequence To New Lands. Laps Around The Shallow End Of The Pool, Not For Me.

I Cling To My Memories Of Glorious Desperation.

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

I'm Of The Opinion That The Democrats Have The Ideas I Agree With More Often Than Not. Reenergizing The Middle Class And Giving People A Break.

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

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

I Never Thought About Getting Any Tattoos Removed.

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

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

I Want My Fellow Citizens To Wise Up And Stop Falling For [war]. I Try With My Limited Access, I'm Not Getting Into Kabul With A Camera, They're Not Letting Me Get Into Benghazi With A Camera. I Do What I Can With My Flimsy American Passport And A Visa. The Photos Are A Bit More Heavy From Southern Sudan And Haiti And Cuba.

America Is A Rough Room And You Don't Know What Might Come Your Way, So You Have To Be Prepared For Almost Anything.

Songs Sung Under Duress Are Often Very Powerful.

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.

My Optimism Wears Heavy Boots And Is Loud.

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.

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With Any Advent In Technology, Any Technological Innovation, There Is The Good And The Bad.

The Rich Survive And Everyone Else Gets Ready To Work 2 1/2 To 3 1/2 Jobs And What Do You Get? Blade Runner. Welcome To Your Science Fiction. Your 21st Century. I Think That's Where It Goes. The Rich Get Richer And Everyone Else... The Middle Class Kind Of Starts Dropping Lower And Lower.

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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.

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

Knowledge Without Mileage Equals Bullshit.

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

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.

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

The Reality Is That We Are Going To Have Problems With Water In This Century. And The Fact That We Are Going To Have Problems With Fossil Fuel Is A Given.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I Don't Have A Wife, I Don't Have Any Kids, I Don't Have Any Addictions That Keep Me Drooling On The Couch, And I'm Kind Of Target Oriented.

I'm Not A Young Man, And I Can Find Intensity In A Lot Of Different Ways, Sometimes Without Even Raising My Voice. When I Was Younger, It Was All About How I Need Three Extra Sets Of Lungs To Get Enough Wind To Get Out The Thing At The Screaming Level I Need To, Because That's The Way It Needs To Be. Now, I See That There's A Whole Lot Of Other Colors On The Palette.

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.

I Get Tired Of Talking When I Want To Be Silent.

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Bill Richardson

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