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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. Because Americans, It's Easy To Make Us Freak Out. When The Going Gets Rough, You Have To Get Conservative. That's What's Happened To America In The Last Eight Years. I Just Try To Point Out That There's More Going On Than Most People Pay Attention To.

-Henry Rollins

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There Are Other People,

Henry Rollins

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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. Because Americans, It's Easy To Make Us Freak Out. When The Going Gets Rough, You Have To Get Conservative. That's What's Happened To America In The Last Eight Years. I Just Try To Point Out That There's More Going On Than Most People Pay Attention To.

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If You're Crazy Enough To Put Your Hat Into The Ring Of Speculation And Punditry, You're Going To Get Some Turbulence. But If It's Coming From Some Journalist With A Comfortable Degree Of Body Fat, I'm Not Losing Any Sleep Over It.

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 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.

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

If It Were A Choice Between Me Getting Killed Or One Of My Friend's Kids, I Would Happily Take The Shot.

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

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.

That Newt Gingrich Or Any Mainstream Republican Has The Nerve To Look Down From What They Perceive As Their Moral Mountaintop At Anyone Is Laughable.

Motivation Has Always Been A Fascinating Factor When Considering A Touring Artist, Especially When The Years Stack Up. What Keeps One Out There Year After Year?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

The Perpetrators Of The Actual Bad Stuff That Does Real And Lasting Harm To People, Like Leakage Of Industrial Chemicals Into Water Systems, Seem To Get Not So Much As A Second Glance; The Bloviation From Media Pundits And Think Tanks Creates False Problems That Waste Time And Energy Debunking.

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.

As Miserable As Life May Be I Hold It Pretty Precious

Want A Good Body? Work At It. Want To Be A Success? Work At It. Want To Be Truly Exceptional? Be A Touch Insane... You Need A Little Bit Of Insanity To Do Great Things.

I Don't Know How Much You Follow Current Events. For Some, There's Not Enough Time To Keep Up On What's Happening; For Others, The News Is Too Depressing, And Peering Too Deeply Fills One With Boiling Frustration All Too Quickly.

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

I Never Had Any Interest In Being Involved With The Boy Scouts.

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 Am A Pretty Crazy Person, So It's Best For Me To Be On My Own Most Of The Time.

I Have A Lot Of Compact Discs. I Need Them For Radio Play And Convenience. Many Bands And Artists I Am A Fan Of Don't Always Release Their Work On Vinyl, So I Take What They Feel Like Giving Me.

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

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.

You Are The Untold Story. You Are The Impassioned Truth Wanting To Scream Its Existence, To Be Forever Trapped By A Strong Hand Clapped Firmly Over The Mouth Of My Soul.

Disappointment Always Arrives Before Hope And The Darkness Of Night Comes Before The Dawn. Don't Lose Hope Now Because Things Will Brighter With The New Day.

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 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 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.

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

You Can Get What You Want. Never Sell Out. Don't Break. Don't Weaken. Don't Let The Kindness Of Strangers Be Your Salvation, For It Is No Salvation At All. Unless You Sleep Alone, You Sleep With The Enemy. Never Come Out Of The Storm. On The Other Hand, Maybe You Should. You Don't Have What It Takes To Go The Hard Way. Come Out Of The Cold And Sit By The Fire. Let Them Warm You With The Smiles And Promise Of Friendship's Fortune. Lose Your Edge. A Soft Body And Chained Mind Suit You. Chances Are You Don't Have What It Takes To Walk The Frozen Trail. Stay Home And Relax.

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

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

Musicians Should Not Play Music. Music Should Play Musicians.

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Opportunities To Learn

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

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Hope Is The Last Thing A Person Does Before They Are Defeated.

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

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

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.

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

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As You Do With Any Band You're In, You Get To Know Everyone Too Well All Too Soon. When You're Crammed Into A Small Space, Proximity Leads To Familiarity.

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.

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

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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.

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Anything Is Possible

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Most Of The People Who Call Me A Sellout Were 7 When I Was Down Face-first In The Punk Trenches.

There’s One Thing About Black Sabbath Which Should Not Be Understated: If Black Sabbath Is Missing Any One Of Its Members It’s No Longer Black Sabbath.

I'm Trying To Be Confrontational And Direct. If I Lack Directness Then I Only Have Myself To Blame Because I Lack The Skills To Make My Point Clear.

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

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

It Is Very Difficult To Tell Americans That They Can't Do Something.

Sarah Palin Embarrasses Herself Almost Immediately Upon Opening Her Mouth To Speak Or Upon Moving Her Fingers To Send Messages To Her Dull Flock.

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

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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.

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

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.

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.

Quite Often Governments Are One Way And The People Are Another.

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

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

Lifting Weights

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.

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

You Can't Right The Wrongs Because You'll Never Understand The Cause And You'll Be Too Busy Dodging The Effect.

You Must Never Lower Yourself To Being A Person You Don't Like.

Once You Say Something, It Stays Said. I Apologized To Anyone Who May Have Been Hurt By What I Said, And I Really Meant It. I Am Absolutely Not Interested In Hurting Anyone, Or Being Mean Or Insensitive.

Life Forgets Me But Will Not Let Me Forget Holds Me Down And Tells Me That I'm Free.

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

After I Left D.c. To Join Black Flag, I Felt I Was In A Band.

I Can Tell You Exactly Where The Economy Is Going. It's Going To China, Honduras, Guatemala, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cipan, And Any Other Place Where You Can Pay People Peanuts And Have Them Work Like Dogs.

The Easy Solution Isn't The Solution, It's The Problem.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Citizens United Didn't Work. Hey, Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Shellgame Adelson: Democracy Trumps Money Sometimes.

Citizens United

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

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

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

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

While I Have Not Ruled Out The Possibility Of Doing Music, What I Don't Want To Do Is Go Onstage And Perform Old Songs. I Do, All The Time, But I Don't Think It Is Artistically Brave.

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.

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

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

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Anywhere You Hang Yourself Is Home.

What I've Found Is That A Lot Of Soldiers Are Surprisingly Apolitical. Their Reality Is, "today I'm Going To Leave The Gate For Twelve Hours, And I'm Going To Make It Back To The Dining Facility By Sundown With The Arms And Legs Of Me And My Buddies Intact."

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

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

Doing The Right Thing

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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

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

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.

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

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

Will Punk Rock Ever Die? Pal, If You Have To Ask It's Dead To You.

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

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.

You Always Know The Mark Of A Coward. A Coward Hides Behind Freedom. A Brave Person Stands In Front Of Freedom And Defends It For Others.

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

Love Heals Scars Love Left

We Are Misery-making Machines! Homo Sapiens Has Perfected The Art Of Causing Suffering. Pain Is Humankind's Collective Gdp.

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.

I Cling To My Memories Of Glorious Desperation.

You Can Find Me In The Frozen Mood Section.

Everyone Who Knows Me Knows That I'm A Hopeless Romantic Who Listens To Love Ballads And Doo-wop Songs All The Time.

Miles Davis Would Have This Lineup Of All These Amazing Musicians And One Day Would Just Say, 'we're Done.' After Tons Of Great Records And Tickets Sold, He Said, 'now I'm Going To Grow My Hair Out And Play My Horn Through A Wah-wah Pedal.' Rather Than Play It Safe, He Went On.

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.

Whenever I Write Lyrics, In The Back Of My Mind I Always See A Guy Driving To Work, Driving To A Really Bad Job, One Of Those Horrible Institutions, Or One Of Those Low Squat Buildings In Los Angeles. I Write With That Person In My Mind.

Americans Are Poorly Served By Their Media, You Know, For The War Machine And Propaganda Machine And The Global Empire And They're Poorly Served By What They Are Being Told Is Representative Government.

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Lindsey Buckingham

Cyrano De Bergerac

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