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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."

-Henry Rollins

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What I've Found Is

Henry Rollins

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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."

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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.

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

There Is No Place In The World Like Australia. Not Even Its Beautiful Neighbor New Zealand.

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.

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

Before Any American Points A Finger At President Putin And Calls Him Nasty Names, They Should Recognize That A Lot Of Americans Agree With Putin On His Stance Against Homosexual And Transgender People.

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.

I Mean Black Flag Happened. I Was Lucky. I Don't Think I Could Have Put Together Something With One Percent Of That Oomph On My Own.

I Have No Pride About Anything I Have Done. It's Just Not The Way I Think About Things. I Do The Work, Always, As Hard As I Can, To The Point Of Pain, Injury, Exhaustion, If That Is What It Takes. Once I Am Done, I Move On.

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.

I Definitely Learned A Lesson This Time. I Know That I Can Be Broken. I Am Not As Tough As I Thought. I See It Now. At This Point, It's The Only Thing Good That Came Out Of All Of This. I Know Myself Better Now And Know What I Have To Do.

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

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!!!!’

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.

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

One Person's Roar Is Another's Whine, Just As One Person's Music Is Another's Unendurable Noise.

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

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.

I'm Not Harmful, Just Introspective. You Can Probably Think I'm Weird, But It's Not Harmful Weird.

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

If You Watch A Stretch Of Tv For A Few Hours, There Is A Good Chance You'll Hear Me On Some Commercial Or In Some Documentary Or On A Cartoon As Some Voice Of A Character.

Pride Is A Thing That I Have Tried To Abandon Completely. Try As I Might, Pride Still Creeps Into Many Of The Things I Do.

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

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.

Joe Strummer, Johnny Rotten, And Ian Mackaye Were All People Who Really Made Me See Things Differently.

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

I Don't 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.

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

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

Most Of The Writers I Like Just Intimidate And Humble Me But In That There's A Good Deal Of Inspiration To Be Had As Well.

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.

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.

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.

You Don't Make Me Feel Like You Used To. That's Why I'm Leaving That's Why People Leave Each Other They Come To Their Senses And Get Selfish Again.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I Am Primarily A Loner. I Don't Go To Clubs. I Don't Hang Out With People. I Don't Know Many People. It's Just The Way It Ended Up. It's Not A Sob Story; It's Fine For Me.

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 Don't Need To Have My Convictions Confirmed By A Show Of Numbers. However, Being Among People In Front Of A Band Leads Me To Believe That All Is Not Lost, That Humans, Now And Then, Can Communicate On A Higher Level Than The Political And The Practical.

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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.

Youth Is Fleeting And Life Is Short, You Might As Well Strike Hard. Anything Else Is Just Average.

I Think We Are In Fact, Losing Free Speech. We Don't Seem To Care Though. Many Of Us Don't Seem To Notice. We Will Have To Do A Lot Of Work To Bring Back The American Way To America.

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

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

I'd Defend Myself. But I Don't Go Around Shoving People Around; That's Not Me At All - That's For A Cop. I'm Not Into That Type Of Behavior At All.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

I 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.

I'm Pessimistic. I Don't Think That Justice Always Gets The Right Person.

I'm Not A Thrill Seeker. I'm Not Looking To Get Kidnapped. I'm Not Looking To Get A Shot At. I've Been Shot At. I Didn't Like It.

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.

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.

Questioning Anything And Everything, To Me, Is Punk Rock.

Anything And Everything

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

Life Is Weird, Great And Dangerous.

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.

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.

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 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.

Break From Self Rejection, Try Some Introspection.

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.

All Good Writers Inspire Me As I Have Never Thought I Was Any Good. As Far As A Writer Who Made Me Think I Could Do It, It Was Henry Miller. Not Because I Thought He Was So Simple That I Reckoned I Could Pull It Off As Well, But It Was His Freedom And Guts That Really Moved Me To Want To Write All The Time.

I Think Americans Really Need To Start Thinking Globally. As Resources Become More Dear, We Will Be Pulled Closer To The Rest Of The World Anyway.

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

I Don't Consider Myself An Actor, For Me It's Employment. Like The Actor Who's A Waiter A Lot, I'm An Actor When I'm Not On Tour, In That That's A Job I Can Do.

It's Hard To Keep Your Backbone Straight In America. It's Easy To Turn Into That Which You Hate, And To Get Smashed.

Being An Artist Is Dragging Your Innermost Feelings Out, Giving A Piece Of Yourself, No Matter In Which Art Form, In Which Medium.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

The Bad Seeds Are A Band I Will Travel A Great Distance To See Whenever Possible.

I Don't Get A Lot Of Choices In Movies. It's Not Like I'm Brad Pitt And I Can Walk In And Go Here's The Film I Want To Do And Everyone Runs Around... I Don't Have That. I Stand In Line And Do Auditions. I'm There With 80 Other Guys Trying To Be That Guy. Every Once In Awhile I Luck Out.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Well, There's Katrina, But You Can Go Through Lots Of Kurdistan And It Looks Like Katrina Was Just There But There's People Living In It.

Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela Had And Still Has Many Detractors.

When I Write Lyrics, It's Only When I'm Angry Or Hurt Or Sad. So Lyrically It's Never Really Easy Going. And The Music Is Always Really Intense.

If You Want To Believe That Humans Walked With Dinosaurs And The Planet Is A Few Thousand Years Old, That Is Absolutely Fine With Me. If You Want To Teach This To Your Kids, I Don't Care. If States Want To Teach Creationism In Their Schools, There Is Nothing I Can Do About It, So I Don't Sweat It.

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

America's Foreign Policy Lacks The Backbone To Do The Right Thing In Afghanistan - Which Is Leave.

What Does New York Sound Like? For Me, The Charlie Parker At The Royal Roost Recordings On The Savoy Label Are The Total Embodiment Of The New York Music Experience.

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.

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

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.

But I Have A Good Life. I Enjoy What I Do. I Am Married To Work.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

My Whole Access Into Culture Was Violent. Violence Is Something I Understand. Don't Like It, Don't Condone It, But I Sure Understand Where It Comes From.

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

If There Was A God, He Wouldn't Let A Guy Walk Right Up And Shoot You In The Face Now Would He? That's Right, Now You Get The Picture. Truth Burns Doesn't It?

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.

I Would Hate To Think That Some People Have Found Themselves In A Musical Cul-de-sac And Have Ceased To Explore New Music, Or At Least Music That Is New To Them, Because They Are So Glued To The Past.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

Nothing Brings People Together More, Than Mutual Hatred.

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

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.

My Laptop Seems To Know Where I Am, Even If I Don't. My Cellphone Asks Me If I Want Directions To Anywhere From The Spot I Am Standing In. I Buy A Record Online And Amazon.com Sends Me Letters, Telling Me That People Who Bought What I Bought Also Bought These Other Records.

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.

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

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 Not A Trained Actor And Am Not Near The Top Of Anyone's Want List. I Go After What I Am Offered, If I Am So Inclined. Now And Then, I Get Offers For Things That Are Not To My Liking, In That I Just Don't Care About The Story. All This Super Tough Guy Stuff Isn't Anything That Interests Me All That Much. I Can't Think Of Anything I Turned Down That I Regret.

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.

There's Nothing Funny About, 'yeah, I Took A First Class Plane Ticket And I Went To Some Designer Beach And Made Out With A Laotian Slave Girl.' Who Cares?

My Feelings For You Shame Me Into Silence.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

I'm A Professional Food Eater.

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.

It Wasn't Until My Late Twenties That I Learned That By Working Out I Had Given Myself A Great Gift. I Learned That Nothing Good Comes Without Work And A Certain Amount Of Pain. When I Finish A Set That Leaves Me Shaking, I Know More About Myself. When Something Gets Bad, I Know It Can't Be As Bad As That Workout.

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

Most Of The Time When I Have Met Artists Who Have Meant A Lot To Me, The Experience Has Been Well Above Expectation. People Like Iggy, Lou Reed, Jerry Lee Lewis, Black Sabbath, Nick Cave, Hubert Selby Jr, Billy Gibbons, Al Pacino, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, Johnny Cash Etc. Have Been Really Great To Me. What Strikes Me Is Most Of The Time, The Bigger The Celeb/legend, The More Polite And Cool They Are. It's The Insecure Ones Who Treat You Like They're Doing You A Favor By Shaking Your Hand.

I Think That One Of The Hardest Things In The World To Be Is A Black Male. I Mean Everyone Hates Your Guts. White Men Are Afraid Of You. White Women Are Afraid Of You. The Cops Hate You. The Government Wants You Dead. Your Own People Want To Shoot You For What You Got. You Just Can't Get Over It. And Even If You Are Able To Get Over It You're Forced To Do It On The White Guy's Terms.

Imagine Someone So Infatuated By A Band That They Have Every Different Pressing Of Every Album The Band Made. Most Of The Time, The Only Difference In The Album Is The Matrix Number Or A Different 'made In' Notation On The Back Cover Or Label. This Is Enough To Make Some People Extremely Excited. Actually, Much More Than Excited.

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

I Have Always Identified With Joan Didion's Depiction Of Los Angeles And Southern California, Ever Since Reading 'play It As It Lays,' 'slouching Towards Bethlehem' And 'the White Album.'

We City Dwellers, We Residents Of Los Angeles And The Surrounding Areas, Are For The Most Part Urbanized To Some Extent. We Know Deadlines, Start Times And Traffic.

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.

Sometimes The Truth Hurts. And Sometimes It Feels Real Good.

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

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.

Without An Education, You Won't Have A Future.

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

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

Here You Can Be A Billionaire, Like Mark Zuckerberg Rich, But You Are Going To Die And You Are Here For A While And Ultimately All Of Your Stuff Is Kind Of Like A Rental.

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.

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

You Can Say, "well, I Have A Question," And Someone Will Say, "oh, So You Hate America." And It Has Nothing To Do With The Discussion At All.

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.

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.

To My Ears, Jazz Sounds Better In Warm Weather And After The Sun Has Gone Down. While I Will Listen To Some Of My Favorite Jazz Records In Cooler Weather, It's The Warmer Nights That Really Make Them Come Alive. Something About Those Sounds And The Heat Of The Night Really Makes It Happen For Me.

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.

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

I Was At The First Minor Threat Show, And You Could Tell, 'this Band Is Going To Be The King Of The Town.' It Was Obvious. They Were So Good.

Someone Like Ashlee Simpson, She Lip-synchs On 'saturday Night Live,' Gets Totally Called Out La Milli Vanilli, And No One Really Cares That Much. It Doesn't Make Me Hate Ashlee; She's Just Taking Instructions.

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

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

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

I Am Too Far Gone To Be Rehabilitated.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

I'm Not A Singer. If You've Heard Any Of My Records, That's Not Singing. I Have No Vocal Qualities Whatsoever. I've Got A Lot Of Enthusisam And I Go To The Cross, But There's No Skill Going On There. It's More Just Intuitiveness.

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

I Have No Desire To Write Anything For Screen. That's A Great Talent.

No Child Asks To Get Born, So When They Are Here, They Should Be Shielded From Any Possible Horror.

I Just Write What I Think Is Good And Keep It At A Thousand Words.

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

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

I Enjoy Helping. I Like Doing Benefits And Things Like That, But Don't Feel The Need To Be Thanked Or Even Meet The People I Am Doing The Benefit For.

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.

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.

You Can Still Function As A Living Ruin.

It's Sad When Someone You Know Becomes Someone You Knew.

Michele Bachmann Is Always A Great Person To Go To For An Opinion About Anything. She Has A Very Active And Interesting Mind.

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

All Of The Things That The Bible Warns You Of Being: Jealous, Covetous, Murderous, Selfish, Etc., That's Kind Of How Humans Are.

When You Hear About What Someone Else Is Going Through, And You Are Unable To Distance Yourself From It Or In Any Way Muzzle Your Empathy And Are Inspired To Actually Do Something, These Are Moments To Learn From.

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

The Idea That Any Performer Type Is Owed Anything Is A Joke To Me.

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.

Mr. Christ, I Read You As An Infinitely Patient Entity Who, As They Say, Often Works In Mysterious Ways, A Rebel Unafraid To Take The Tougher, Less Traveled Paths. Seems To Me You're Playing The Long Game. Is That Why More States Are Coming Out In Favor Of Marriage Equality? Is That Why The Affordable Care Act Is Now With Us?

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