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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.

-Henry Rollins

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When Was The Last

Henry Rollins

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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.

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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.

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

Guns Are Part Of The American Identity.

American Identity

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

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.

In America, Quite Often, For People From A Certain Economic Position Two Choices Become Very Evident As To Their Adult Life. One Is Crime, One Is The Military. And It Is Quite Often That Some People Choose One Or The Other, Their Options Not Being As Many As Someone From A Higher Income.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

You Don't Have To Twist My Arm To Work.

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.

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 Like The Idea Of Someone Else’s Love Safely Sealed In A Song Or A Book.

I Don't Want To Fail The Audience. I Don't Want To Let Them Down.

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

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.

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.

If It's A Man's World, As They Say, Then Men, Your World Is A Poorly Run Carnage Fest.

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

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

I Contribute A Large Amount Of Money To The Southern Poverty Law Center, So I'm On Their Mailing List For All Their Klan Watch Newsletters. I'm Very Well Aware Of White Power Movements In America.

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.

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.

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 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.

Quite Often Governments Are One Way And The People Are Another. You Can't Judge The Many By The Actions Of A Few. What If Americans Were All Judged By The Actions Of The Bush Administration And People Did Not Know The Truth? That America Is Full Of People Who Are, At Present, Poorly Represented And Poorly Catered To By The Media. All These Places I Go, People Say That America Is Good And I'm Like, "well, Thank You, I'm Glad You Can See It." And You Know - We Are Good, We've Just Got Work To Do.

Youths Write Me And Tell Me That Their Band Will Go Nowhere Because Of All The Bad Bands In The World. I Tell Them There Has Always Been Awful Music And That No Great Band Ever Wasted Any Time Complaining, They Just Got It Done. Their Ropey Ranting Is Just A Way To Get Out Of The Hard Work Of Making Music That Will Do Some Lasting Damage.

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.

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

I Would Like To Get Out To The Region In The Caspian Sea. I Would Like To Go There. I Would Like To Get To Darfur. I Would Like To Get To Khartoum In Northern Sudan. I Would Like To Get To Zimbabwe. I Would Like To Go Back To North Korea, If I Could. I Would Like To Go To Yemen. I Would Like To Get To Kashmir. Most Of Those Destinations I Will Get To.

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.

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

Canadians Are Often A Friendly Bunch.

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

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.

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

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!'

The Bible Saw That Can Get A Lot Of People Killed, So Let's Try And Steer People Away From That. I Am Not An Expert On The Bible. I Am Just Saying.

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

Texas Is A Hotbed Of Insanely Good Bands And Musicians.

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?

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.

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

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

I Always Found The Chicago Audience To Be A Smart, Fast-moving, Violent And Cheerful Lot, And It's Always Good To Be Back.

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.

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.

People Like Jefferson, Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony And M. L. K. Are Larger Than Life To Me. I Find Myself Staring At Photographs Of Lincoln Almost In Disbelief That He Was A Man Who Walked The Earth And Not Merely Some Fiction Writer's Creation.

Put Temptation On The Unenjoyment Line.

Sometimes I Would Get Invited To A Party Or To Go Out To Dinner By One Of Them And I Would Decline. Part Of Me Wanted To Go, But Those Kind Of Outings Always Made Me Feel Even More Alienated Than Usual. Hearing Them Talk Made Me Feel Lonely And Hateful At The Same Time. Lonely Because I Didn't Fit In, Never Did. When I Was Reminded, It Hurt. And Hateful Because It Reaffirmed What I Already Knew, That I Was Alone And On The Outside.

I Can Deal With People Who Watch Me On Stage But I Am Not Good In Communicating With People Any Other Way Than Through My Work.

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

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

Live Music Is The Cure For What Ails Ya.

What Goes Best With A Cup Of Coffee? Another Cup.

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

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

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

I've Never Raped Or Killed Anybody, Or Hurt A Kid. I've Done All The More Inept, High-volume Stuff - Like, "whoops, Sorry I Came In Your Hair. Don't Worry, I Won't Use Your Name When I Tell This Story On Stage."

Airports In Major Cities, Like Lax, Are Trippy Environments. It Is At Once A National And International Gathering Of Those In Transition: The Euphoric, Emerging From Planes, Their Journey At An End, And The Determined, About To Depart.

Before The Civil War, The Southern States Were Selling A Lot Of Cotton To England And Didn't Seem To Mind British Occupation. By And Large, The Revolutionary War Wasn't At All Great For Business.

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

Cynicism Is Only Intellectual Sloth.

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.

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.

You Can Still Function As A Living Ruin.

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.

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

Unconditional Love

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.

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

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.

If You Think About It, Every Single Species Is Endangered. Homo Sapiens At The Front Of The Line, Mosquitoes And Lawyers At The Back.

You’ll Never Know That Just Sitting Across A Room Full Of People, I Have Transformed You Into A Goddess. A Destroyer Of Despair.

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.

The Material You Work With Is That Which You Will Come To Resemble. That Which You Work Against Will Always Work Against You, Including Yourself.

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

I Don't Want To Pass Through Life Like A Smooth Plane Ride.

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 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.

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

If You Are A Musician Who Has Released Albums, It Would Perhaps Be Morbidly Interesting To Know How Much You Would Be Owed If Everyone Who Now Has Your Music Had Actually Bought Your Record.

Adolescence Is A Plague On The Senses.

As Miserable As Life May Be I Hold It Pretty Precious

The Truth Is An Anti-war Statement In Itself.

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

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.

Amy Winehouse Was Not A Person I Ever Met, And I Can't Say That I Am Overly Conversant In All Of Her Music. I Do Have Her Albums, And Years Ago, When I First Heard Her Sing, I Thought She Was Extraordinary. The Tone Of Her Voice, Her Phrasing, Her Raw Appearance - These Qualities Were Extremely Captivating To Me.

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

She Touches Me The Jungle Lights Up With Incinerating Fire Looks Like A Flaming Serpent I Look Into Her Eyes I See A Movie Flickering Car Crashes People Kicking Corpses Men Ripping Their Tracheas Out And Shaking Them At The Sky I Think To Myself: I Don’t Want To Survive This One I Want To Burn Up In The Wreckage Cooking Flesh In The Jungle

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.

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

A Man With An Excruciatingly Painful Condition Wrote Me And Told Me That His Doctor Said That The Only Cure For What He Has Is Death, And He Might Want To Consider Suicide. What Do You Say To Him? I Doubt The, "hey Let's Go Get Some Coffee And Talk" Thing Is Going To Be At All Helpful.

In Israel, There's A Lot To Learn From Anyone, Because To Live There You've Got To Deal With The Truth. Things Happen Real Fast. Your Day Goes From Cool To Catastrophic In One Second. Israelis Know That The Cafe You're In Could Blow Up, Or The Shopping Mall, And They Rock That.

I Love Being A Storyteller. I Love Telling Stories.

Telling Stories

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

What You Do For Yourself Is One Thing. What You Do For Others Is Something Else Entirely.

When You Are Young, There Is So Much Ahead Of You, It's Like The Saharan Desert. You Can't Even See Across It.

Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela Had And Still Has Many Detractors.

I Am Not Immune To The Lure Of A Signed Record, Flier Or Set List. The Fact That Your Music Heroes Potentially Had, In Their Own Hands, The Record You Now Have In Yours Is Kind Of Cool. When The Musician Has Departed, It Can Give The Thing A Unique Power.

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

Thinking Of You

Marriage Equality Is A Term So Ridiculous On Its Face That When You Hear It Mentioned, You Would Think You Were In Riyadh. Years From Now, Perhaps We Can Lose The Equality Part, The Same-sex Part And Call It What It Is - Marriage.

In My Bright, Utopian Future World, They Will Hand Out College Educations Like Cups Of Water At The End Of The L.a. Marathon.

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

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

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.

There Are Religions And Social And Moral Awareness In Any Society That Gets Passed Immediately. Those Human Truths. All Cultures Address Them.

The Iron Is The Best Antidepressant I Have Ever Found.

Lifting Weights

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.'

A Man Came Up To Me The Other Day And Said He Hadn't Had A Bite In Weeks. So You Know What I Did? I Walked By Him Like He Didn't Even Exist.

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

I Love To Go On Stage And Sing.

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

As Far As I Have Been Able To Understand, The Japanese Seem To Keep Things Close To The Vest. Friendly But Remote And Polite To The Point Of Being Invisible. It Is In The Music, Literature, Film And Art That The Japanese Really Seem To Express Themselves.

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.

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.

Lou Reed's Music Has Been In The Lives Of Millions Of People All Over The World For Decades. He Had A Truly Universal Presence And Was Respected By Musicians Across All Genres.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Republicans Just Can't Help Themselves. They Get In Front Of A Live Microphone And Within A Few Sentences Are Rocketing Down The Swiftest And Most Direct Route To The All-you-can-eat Comedian-and-talk-show-host Buffet.

I Didn't Want To Work At Pizza Hut And I Didn't Want To Join The Army. So I Just Decided To Go Out And Be Awesome.

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

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

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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.

To This Day, My Haircut Is The Number Two Clippers, Which I Apply To Myself Every Month.

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

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.

Spending Time In Calcutta [india] Really Did A Number On Me. The Way Life And Death Are Almost The Same Thing, The Way Poverty Is Dealt With, The Sheer Number Of Dead Bodies You See, It's All Pretty Overwhelming.

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 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.

I'm Usually Busy - If You Call Me At The House, I Get About Four Phone Calls There A Year - I'm Usually Running Around The House With A Pen In My Mouth Holding Onto Something, Folding It, Or Doing Something To It, And It's Always A Bad Time.

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

Fish Is The Only Kind Of Respirating Thing That I Consume. Everything Else I Don't Want Any Part Of.

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

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.

I Think The U.k. Is An Amazing Place And Has Been Extremely Good To Me. Some Of My Favorite And Most-listened-to Bands Are From England. I Have Met Many Good People There And Have Been In Front Of Some Of The Most Loyal Audiences I Have Ever Encountered.

I Forged Myself Out Of A Vacuum. I Crawl Along The Highway On Hacked Off Stumps Year After Year. Some Wonder How And Why. I Never Do.

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

Anything And Everything

Anywhere You Hang Yourself Is Home.

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.

I Don't Have Any Spiritual Anything.you Shoot A Guy With A Gun, He Dies. You Step On A Bug, The Bug Dies. There Is No Heaven For Me And No Hell. And Certainly Not Any Karma.

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.

Its No Surprise To Me That Anyone Hardly Tells The Truth About How They Feel. The Smart Ones Keep To Themselves For Good Reason. Why Would You Want To Tell Anyone Anything That's Dear To You? Even When You Like Them And Want Nothing More Than To Be Closer To Them? It's So Painful To Be Next To Someone You Feel So Strongly About And Know You Can't Say The Things You Want To.

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'm A Big Germs Fan; Most People Are.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Jazz Music Is As American As It Gets, And So Is The U.s. Postal Service. A Miles Davis Stamp Is A Perfect Marriage Of Two Great American Institutions.

It's Hard To Get People At A Record Company To Talk About Music. They Don't Seem To Want To Talk About Music, It's All Marketing, And That's Part Of A Record, You Gotta Get It Out There, People Have Gotta Hear It, But You Could Do It In A Way That's Not Repulsive.

My First Introduction To African Music Was By My Mother, Who Bought The 'pata Pata' Album By The Great Miriam Makeba When It Came Out. Now That Is An Album. What A Voice.

I Need To Do Things On My Own, Need To Be Left Alone.

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

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

I Beg Young People To Travel.

I Slept In Uday Hussein's Bed - That Was Just So Strange. Went To Saddam's Palace, Was In A Mortar Attack - Crazy Stuff. And Like Three Days Later You're Back In Traffic On Sunset Boulevard. It's All Kind Of Behind You, Which Is Kind Of Perfect For A Guy Like Me Because I Can Take That And Turn It Into Quite The Tale.

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

Looking For Work

Sleep Is For Squares.

Perfection. I Have Been Waiting All My Life To Be With You. My Heart Slams Against My Ribs When I Think Of The Slaughtered Nights I Spent All Over The World Waiting To Feel Your Touch.

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.

Change Is Hard, But Change Is Good.

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

Trayvon Martin Did Not Need To Die.

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 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 Think You'll Ever Have A Perfect World Because We Humans Are Prone To Error, And So We're Always In Search Of An Upgrade.

Some People Tell Me That They Like What I Do, Which Is Great, Of Course. The Perfect Irony And Truth Is That I Need Them Much More Than They Need Me.

I Warn People, Your 40s Will Require Massive Amounts Of Humor And Humility.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

I Am Too Far Gone To Be Rehabilitated.

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

I Don't Want To Play Old Music. To Me, It Is Fighting Battles That Are Already Over And Calling Yourself A Warrior. For Me, I See No Courage Or Adventure In Doing The Old Thing Over Again. If Others Want To, That's For Them. For Myself, I Have To Move On. Life Is Too Short To Live In The Past. There Is A Lot To Be Done.

Life Is Too Short

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

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Robert H. Schuller

Emily Dickinson

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