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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.

-Henry Rollins

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Travelling As Extensively As

Henry Rollins

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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.

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

Sleep Is For Squares.

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.

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

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.

The Truth Is An Anti-war Statement In Itself.

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

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

Desperation Is The Secret To My Steady Employment. I Am Not Interested In Downtime. I Really Like To Keep Working All The Time And I Always Feel Like I'm In The Mail Room Of Life; Working Up.

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 Listen To The Way I Speak And Watch The Way I Conduct Myself - There's Nothing About Me That's Rock N' Roll. It's Like, 'hello, I'm In A Rock N' Roll Band'. 'no, You're A Narc.'

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

If I Were A Doctor, I Would Prescribe That You Addict Yourself Deeply And Irrevocably To Music And Never, Ever Seek Cure Outside Of More Music. It Really Is The Best Drug Available.

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

I'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.'

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

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

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

In The City Of Pyongyang, You Don't Have To Look Very Far To See An Image Of The Great Leader, Kim Il Sung. They Love The Guy. He Is Responsible For The Wonder That Is North Korea.

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

Lifting Weights

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.

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.

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.

I Live My Life Through The Prism Of Capitalism And Physiological Limits And Eventualities. In All Of That, There Is No Spirituality Required. No God And Karma Is Needed For The Numbers. I Live My Life By The Numbers. Not Only Am I An American, I Am An Americanist.

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

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

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

Culture Religion

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.

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

I'm Always Looking Upwards And Looking Forwards And So When Someone Says, "hey, Would You Consider A Tv Show?" I Say, "hell Yeah, I'll Consider That. I'll Check That Out."

I Think, To A Great Degree, We Humans Still Divide Ourselves Into Two Species, Even Though We Are Monotypic. There Are Males And Females. We See Them As Different And Not Equal.

Musicians Should Not Play Music. Music Should Play Musicians.

I'm Not Much Of An Improv Guy. That's A Talent I Don't Have.

I Think Of The Thrill Of An Intelligent Woman Talking Just To Me.

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

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

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

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

Unconditional Love

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.

When You're Kept Out Of The Adult World, It's A Blessing In Disguise.

Scott Asheton Was A Brilliant Drummer, A Natural Musician.

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

We All Learn Lessons In Life. Some Stick, Some Don't. I Have Always Learned More From Rejection And Failure Than From Acceptance And Success.

As Miserable As Life May Be I Hold It Pretty Precious

Those Who Seek To Profit By Division Don't Stand A Chance.

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?

Adolescence Is A Plague On The Senses.

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

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

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.

Why Let Your Fury Lay Deep Inside You, Sullenly Boiling Your Blood Into Silent Steam And Griding Your Bones To Dust? I It Not Better To Thrust It Out With Great Velocity From Every Pore, With Your Every Action? Let Your Actions Speak Your Legend. The Physical Is The Manifestation Of The Spirit. Let Your Spirit Be Teeming With Fury. Let Your Strength Be Unusual And Controlled. The Average Is The Borderline That Keeps Mere Men In Their Place. Those Who Step Over The Line Are Heroes By The Very Act. Go.

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

The Talking Shows Allow Me To Come Out Of My Cave And That's Why Those Shows Go On For So Long. I Hate Walking Off Stage. Sometimes I Walk Off And I Miss Them As I'm Walking Off The Stage. I Wonder If They'll Let Me Go Another Hour. That's Why I Do It: To Communicate, To Get Points Across.

Shirley Sherrod Seems Like A Good And Dedicated Person.

I Think About The Meaning Of Pain. Pain Is Personal. It Really Belongs To The One Feeling It. Probably The Only Thing That Is Your Own. I Like Mine.

The World’s A Better Place Since I Chose Music. I Like The Physical Aspect Of It, The Volume And The Intensity Of It. It’s Loud And Hard. I Like All That Because Inside Me I Feel Like Screaming.

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

Creativity Requires A Lot Of Pass/fail/start Again And It Is Often Hard On The Psyche.

While They Flail About, You Will Remain Calm In The Knowledge That You Possess Strength From Within.

I Do Think That Americans Are Poorly Served By Their Media, At Times Extremely Poorly Served By Their Elected Officials Who Are Non Responsive To Majority Feelings And Cut Off To A Certain Degree From The Affairs Of The World.

If The Death Of Osama Bin Laden Brings Any Peace To Those Who Lost Loved Ones On That Awful Day In September 2001, That Is A Great Thing. It Is More Likely, However, Just A Painful Reminder Of What Was Lost.

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.

I Want To Change Things For The Better, Just Like Everybody Else.

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

There's Tons Of Junk Food For Your Mind On The Internet. You Can Sit There For Three Or 10 Or 20 Hours A Day Getting In Online Arguments With Other People Who Also Choose To Waste Their Time.

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

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 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.

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 Get A Lot Of Shit Because I Put "i" In The Lyrics All The Time. The "i" Is Always For Someone Else... When I Say "i," It's So That When That Person Is Singing Along With The Song, It Empowers Them.

Since The Last Tour I Have Done A Lot Of Extensive Travel To Iraq, Kuwait, Siberia, South Korea And Other Places And Picked Up Some Hopefully Interesting Stories. We Are Living In Interesting Times And As Bad As Things Are, I Draw Considerable Inspiration From Some Of The Things I'm Seeing And People I'm Meeting. I'm Looking Forward To Getting Out On The Road And Talking About It All.

Change Is Hard, But Change Is Good.

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

When I'm Off The Road, And I Can Really Control My Diet Down To The Calorie, I Juice Seven Days A Week. Every Afternoon, Whatever I Have At Hand, Beets, Carrots, Ginger, Whatever. I Juice, Literally, Every Single Day. And On The Road, I Try To Find Fresh Juice Wherever I Can.

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

I Have Come To The Conclusion That It's A Waste Of Time To Have Too Much Pride In Anything. Perhaps It's Good To Have A Sense Of Duty, A Jealous Zeal To Protect Or Improve, But Pride Ultimately Is Only That Which Stands Vulnerable To Offense And Degradation.

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

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.

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

I Think Politicians Get Hamstrung By The Nature Of Politics When The Private Sector Can Really Do Great Things.

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.

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.

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

I Try To Be Well Informed. I Don't Know How Well I Do All The Time, But I Try Nonetheless.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Don't Hide Behind The Constitution Or The Bible. If You're Against Gay Marriage, Just Be Honest, Put A Scarlet 'h' On Your Shirt, And Say, 'i Am A Homophobe!'

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.

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.

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

Citizens United

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

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

After Having Read A Lot Of Fiction, Literature, Whatever You Want To Call It, From Wolfe To Houellebecq, I Think You Have To Have An Understanding And Insight Of The Human Condition That Is Informed And Motivated By A Desire To Immerse Yourself In The Human World And Bring These Stories To Bear.

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

As Far As Poetry, I Don't Know If I've Ever Written Any. I've Read A Lot. I Just Write And It Comes Out In Different Forms And Shapes. I Don't Know If I'm Any Good At It I Just Really Go For It And I'm Very Prolific Book Wise Only Because I Own The Company. No One Tells Me 'no' Around Here.

The More You Own, The More It Owns You.

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.

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.

I Write What I Can. I Think Being Able To Write Like Michael Connelly And Have A Character That Goes From Novel To Novel, Or To Dramatize History Like Vidal Or Ellroy, Or Have An Explosively Inventive Mind Like Bulgakov, Would Be An Incredible Thing. I Don't Have That. I Only Have What I Have.

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.

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

It's Not Lost On Me That Everyone Dies, But Some People Have A Kind Of Immortality About Them, And You Can't Imagine That They Will Ever Be Gone.

I'm A Professional Food Eater.

I Just Work, To The Exclusion Of Most Other Things. I Rarely Work In A Frenzied Manner, Just Kind Of - If You Take The Beater That Whips The Icing Or The Eggs Into Shape - On The Upper End Of Medium Speed, That's Kind Of How I Am About Seven Days A Week.

August Used To Be A Sad Month For Me. As The Days Went On, The Thought Of School Starting Weighed Heavily Upon My Young Frame. That, Coupled With The Oppressive Heat And Humidity Of My Native Washington, D.c., Only Seemed To Heighten The Misery.

Heat And Humidity

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

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

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.

August In Sub-saharan Los Angeles Is One Of The Great And Awful Tests Of One's Endurance, Sanity And Stamina.

Watching A Documentary With People Hacking Their Way Through Some Polar Wasteland Is Merely A Visual. Actually Trying To Deal With Cold That Can Literally Kill You Is Quite A Different Thing.

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

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.

I've Been On 'jay Leno,' And Everyone Likes Jay, But Being On That Show Is A Really Boring Afternoon. I Sincerely Like Jay, But I Wouldn't Want His Job, Because I'd Have To Interview Kathy Ireland, And There's Nothing There I'd Want To Know.

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

I Remain Hopeful That Science, Innovation And Kindness Will Come To The Fore As Things Become More And More Tense In Parts Of The World. I Think What You Are Seeing In The World Right Now Is Kind Of A Leveling Or An Attempt To Level The Playing Field.

I Once Asked Ozzy Osbourne, Truly One Of My Favorite People In The World, If He Was Cool With Singing Black Sabbath Songs Year After Year, Whether He Was Performing With Black Sabbath Or Out On A Solo Tour. He Said It Was Great.

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

I Really Like Older Writers, Perhaps Because They Take Me Out Of My Element. I Don't Have A Great Deal Of Interest In Reading A Fictionalized Present As It's Pretty Insane As It Is.

You Can Find Me In The Frozen Mood Section.

As Long As I Tell The Truth I Feel That Nobody Can Touch Me.

Telling The Truth

Quite Often People Will Get An Animal Which Is Probably Not A Good Idea For Them To Have. They Get It Out Of Enthusiasm, There Is A Genuine Interest, But Sometimes They're Not Exactly Prepared For What They're Getting Themselves Into.

When She Comes She Pulls You Close She Breathes In Short Bursts Her Eyes Close Her Head Tilts Back Her Mouth Opens Slightly Her Thighs Turn To Steel, And Then Melt She Is Perfect And You Feel Like You Are Everything.

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 Trying To Amass People In The Streets. I Just Want Them To Be More Aware.

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.

A Great Way To Learn About Your Country Is To Leave It.

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.

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.

From Those Who Agonize That They May No Longer Be Able To Write Off Their Private Jet To Someone Who Doesn't Feel Like Making The Three Mile Hike To The Well To Get Water And Carry It Back, Everyone Struggles.

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

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.

Rarely Do I Do Film Press Because I'm So Low On The Food Chain Of The Movie, And For Me It's Just This Thing I Did For Four Weeks Before The Next Tour Started.

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 Am Talking About Ultimate Deceit. I Am Talking About Unparalleled Treachery. Bottomless Lies. Depths That Are Seen That Are Previously Unimaginable. Darkness And Shattering Despair That Could Break Bones. Paranoia And Horror That Could Stop The Heart Cold. All Inflicted On One's Self By One's Self. The Soul Turns Schizophrenic And Goes Hopelessly Insane.

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

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.

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

I'm Most Comfortable On Stage.

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

Now And Then, Someone Is Able To Look At An Empty Space, Conclude It Would Be A Great Place To Start A Revolution, And Bravely Go Forward.

I Think That Goldman Sachs And The Pentagon Determine More Of America's Outcome Then Any President Or Any Congress, That Sounds A Bit Cynical, But I Think I Am Right.

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.

Songs Sung Under Duress Are Often Very Powerful.

Cynicism Is Only Intellectual Sloth.

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

Discipline Is Money In The Bank. A Real Friend, True Strength.

I Think Americans Suffer For Their Lack Of Travel, Awareness Of The World. It Has Horribly Warped Our Sense Of Place In The Scheme Of Things.

Sometimes When You Meet A Musician You Are A Fan Of, And He Or She Isn't The Friendliest Person, You Walk Away From The Experience Wondering If You Will Ever Be Able To Listen To Their Music Again.

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

Every Single Record I Have Is A Fossil.

I Don't Really Write For Fun; It's Not An Enjoyable Experience. For Me, Art, Or Whatever The Hell It Is I Do, Has Always Been A Refuge From That Which Makes Me Want To Tear My Lungs Out. That's Why I Play Like I Play; I'm Not Into Entertainment.

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.

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

Trayvon Martin Did Not Need To Die.

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

Somewhere, Someone Isn’t Impressed By Your Looks. Not All Men Jump Through The Hoops Of Your Fire. You’re Unbelievably Boring To More People Than You’ll Ever Know.

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

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.

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.

I Don't Really Have Any Women In My Life, Actually Those Two - The Women In My Life Are Two Married Women Who Work At My Office.

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

Like A Lot Of Inwardly Drawn Young People, I Spent A Lot Of Time In Libraries. At My High School, I Often Spent My Lunch Breaks There.

If A Slave Were To Raise His Voice To His Master, He Risked All Manner Of Punishment. Yet What Was Possible In Many Circumstances Was To Lift One's Voice In Song. This Was A Major Ingredient In What Is Now Known As Blues And Gospel. Slaves May Have Been Regarded As Subhuman By Their Cruel Captors, But Through Music, They Were Proud And Dignified.

I Beg Young People To Travel.

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

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

I Will Do My Best To Dodge Tonight's Depression Hide In Sleep Damage Myself In Dreams Wake Up Older, Slightly More Used.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

I Am Always Interested In An Opportunity To Learn Something.

Opportunities To Learn

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.

I Was Happy To Find Out That When On Tour, Dolly Parton Doesn't Use Hotels But Stays On Her Bus Every Night, To The Point Of Having Her Buses Shipped From Austria To Australia So She Can Tour The Way She Sees Fit. I Used One Of Her Buses Once - An Honor.

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

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

I Have Not The Smarts Or Patience For Political Office.

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.

Keep Your Blood Clean, Your Body Lean, And Your Mind Sharp.

Motivational Workout

If I Think Of The Audience Too Much, Then I'm Going To Start Catering To Them...and It Turns Into Entertainment. And I've Got Time For Entertainment; I'm Just Not At All That Interested In Doing It Myself. I'd Rather Go For Some Pretty Raw Expression.

If An American Company Has A Drop Of Patriotic Blood Coursing Through Its System, Then Surely It Would Set Up In America And Employ Americans, Right?

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.

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?

My Fear Is Naked, I'm Naked And Fearless, And My Fear Is Naked...

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

I Wasn't Playing The Music, The Music Was Playing Me... And Once That Went Away, And I Had The Feeling I Was Playing Music, I Had To Stop. The Need To Go Onstage And Get My Brain Flattened Every Night Left Me, And What I Didn't Wanna Do Is Go Onstage And Perpetrate A Fraud... You Cannot Fool An Audience.

When You're Holding People's Attention, I Feel You Must Give Them High-quality Ingredients. They Deserve Nothing But Your Best. And If They Need Information, Get It, Cross-check It, And Try To Be Right. Do Not Waste Their Time; Do Not Enjoy The Ego Trip Of Being Onstage.

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.

I Never Think Of What It's Going To Be Like Later. I Only Think In The Present Tense. The Only Time I Think Backwards Is When I Have To Reissue Something.

As Performers Grow Older, I Reckon There Are Two Ways They Can Go. They Can Either Be Up There, Playing More Deeply From Their Guts Than Ever, Or They Can Be Phoning It In So Crassly That It Leaves A Lump In Your Throat As You Leave The Venue At The End Of The Show.

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

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 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.

If I Had To Live My Life In Anticipation Of What Others Thought Of Me, Little Would Get Done.

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