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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.

-Henry Rollins

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You Can Get What

Henry Rollins

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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.

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Knowledge Without Mileage Equals Bullshit.

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It Is Our Destiny To Be Born Beautiful Into An Ugly Age.

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.

Just Understand That The End Began Long Ago We Got Here Just In Time Look All The Squares In The Sidewalks Were Already There All These Strangers Have More Money Than You Do All The Good Riffs Have Been Taken And Everyone Is So Scared Murder Is Commonplace I Don't Even Flinch At The Gunshots Outside My Window I Feel Lonely Without Them

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

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.

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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.

I Used To Love You I Still Do So Selfish I Love The Old You The You That Didnt Shoot Drugs ...the You That Didnt Get Beat On By Men You Laugh In My Face And Call Me A Fool But Its True I Still Love You Sometimes,i Can See The Old You When Your Eyes Flash When You Almost Look Alive

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I Like The Sound Of My Voice, Doesn't Mean It's Any Good But I Like It. The Joke Is That "all Good Singers Like The Sound Of Their Own Voice" So We'll Go With That.

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

I've Never Been In A Situation Where I Had To Run For My Life, But I've Been Bitten By A Lot Of Poisonous Snakes Where It Was Fairly Painful. Pythons Of Size Have A Lot Of Teeth In That Mouth, It's A Painful Bite And Those Wounds Get Infected Fairly Easily. I've Got Snake Wounds From These Animals That Have Lasted Quite A While Where It'll Ache For Several Days. Having Said That, I've Been Lucky; It's Not Like I'm Looking For Trouble With These Animals Either. It's Not An Envelope I'm Willing To Push.

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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.

I Plan To Be A Part Of Haiti's Reconstruction And Future.

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

The Fact Is, In The Minds Of Many, Trayvon Martin Received The Appropriate Punishment For A True Crime: He Was Black, Male And Dared To Walk Outside. In Life, Young Trayvon Was Just A Teenager; In Death, He Has Been Transformed Into A Scary, Lurking, Suspicious, Prone-to-violence Spook.

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I Travel Because I Want To Know. Books And Documentaries Will Only Get You So Far. If You Want To Know, You Will Have To Go.

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

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

The 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.

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

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

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Think About It: No Matter Who You Are, The Past Plays A Large Part In Your Life. I Am All About Living In The Present As Best As I Can. Try As I Might, There Is Only So Much I Am Able To Achieve On This Front.

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.

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Friends Come And Go

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Always Knowing You're Going To Die And Until Then Knowing You've Got To Live.

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Of Course Same Sex Marriage Is Constitutional! The Right To Be Yourself, To Pursue Life, Liberty, And Property, Is Protected Several Ways Over Several Amendments. John Boehner Should Know This.

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

I'm A Big Fan Of The American Tapes Label. But That's Very Hard To Keep A Grip On That Because You Blink Your Eyes And They've Released Three Records, All Of Which Are Limited Edition, All Sold At One Show. So You Have To Follow In Drips And Drops On Ebay, Which I Do.

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

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.

I Got Three Letters Today Telling Me That I'm God. Why Can't I Pay The Rent?

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

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.

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It Is Just That I Don't Want A Wife And I Don't Want Kids.

Guns Are Part Of The American Identity.

American Identity

Most Americans Are Very Cool People.

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.

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Respect Is Not A One Way Street

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

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Music Keeps You Young. Having Music In Your Life Keeps You Open To Things.

There’s Got To Be Someone For Me. It’s Not Too Much To Ask. Just Someone To Be With. Someone To Love. Someone To Give Everything To. Someone.

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

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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

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

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

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Doing The Right Thing

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

The Iron Is The Best Antidepressant I Have Ever Found.

Lifting Weights

You Know, We Are One Nation Under A God. Yes, You Were Right. An Angry, Crack Slinging God Who Decorates With Bullets And Spent Condoms.

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.

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.

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Life Is Weird, Great And Dangerous.

The Only Safety Is In The Middle Of Total Misunderstanding And Deception.

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Lifting Weights

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I Don't Believe It Mattered To Timothy Mcveigh Who Was President Or Who His Congressional Representative Was When He Blew Up The Murrah Building In 1995.

The Ruts Were A Great Punk Rock Band From England Whose Songs Were As Excellent As Their Time Together Was Short.

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

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

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 Like How I Write Better Than How I Speak.

I Have Had A Number Of Less-than-enviable Moments In My Life When Dealing With Other People. I Won't Attempt To Blunt That By Saying I Am Not The Only One.

I 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.

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.

When You're Going Into An Employment Environment That Looks Pretty Scary, It Is Easy To Lose Your Moral Compass, Your Decency, Your Sense Of Civility And Your Sense Of Community.

It Is Impossible, After A Certain Point, To Go Back To A Previous Way Of Life, A Previous Way Of Thinking.

Don’t Think About It. Do It. Don’t Talk About It. Do It.

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.

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

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My Father Did Not Rock. He Just Earned And Hated. Don't End Up Like This Man.

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.

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At Times, I Feel America Is Something That I Can Actually Put My Arms Around, More Than A Land Mass And A Constitution, Something Far More Containable And Understandable. I Don't Exactly Know What It Is, But At These Times I Feel Completely Woven Into It.

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

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.

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

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.

Where There Is Young People And Vitality, You're Going To Find Punk Rock.

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

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.

The Only Thing Worse Than The Pastor Terry Jones Scheduled Koran Burning Is The Fact That He Canceled The Proposed Event.

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.

As A Young Person Growing Up In Washington, D.c., Summers Were Hot, Humid And Relentless. My Friends And I Grew More Restless And Adventurous With Every Passing Year.

Some Music Really Does Suck!

I Take The Work Seriously, Just Not Myself In It.

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.

To See Change In Your Own Area Code Is Very Powerful. There's A Little Orphanage Down The Street From My Company, And We Donate $1 From The Sale Of Each Cd We Sell To The Orphanage.

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

I Never Thought About Getting Any Tattoos Removed.

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

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Ivy Compton-Burnett

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