Quotes by Henry Rollins

"Guns are part of the American identity."

"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."

"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."

"So, one way or another, I found myself in a few movies. I take it seriously when I'm on the set, but I don't take myself seriously as an actor."

"I've made some great mistakes in my life, but, you know, they were honest mistakes."

"I'm 36 and if I met a woman of my own age and married her, I'd also be marrying her former life, her past. It might be OK for some people - I don't want to judge it or anything - but it's not for me. It would destroy my creativity."

"In winter, I plot and plan. In spring, I move."

"Everything I do, writing, touring, travelling, it all comes from the punk and hardcore attitude, from that expression - from being open to try things but relying on yourself, taking what you have into the battle and making of it what you will, hoping you can figure it out as you go. Make some sense of it."

"But I have a good life. I enjoy what I do. I am married to work."

"You need a little bit of insanity to do great things."

"Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn't worth the time and effort."

"Maybe I'm just a psycho, and the stage is a better place to go than either the loony bin or somewhere else."

"August, the summer's last messenger of misery, is a hollow actor."

"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."

"As long as I tell the truth I feel that nobody can touch me."

"Sometimes the truth hurts. And sometimes it feels real good."

"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."

"Pizza makes me think that anything is possible."

"I think politicians get hamstrung by the nature of politics when the private sector can really do great things."

"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."

"I want to change things for the better, just like everybody else."

"The only difference between me and others is that they think they can change something with cute little poems, nice cards or embracing trees and being nice to little lapdogs."

"I am an optimist because I want to change things for the better and I know that blood has to be spilled and disharmony and cruelty are necessary to do that."

"I have always thought that change you can see and feel is best."

"When you have to work with and exist amongst cynical, burned-out personnel on a set, it doesn't matter what you're shooting or how much you're being paid - it's not worth it."

"You don't have to twist my arm to work."

"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."

"I take the work seriously, just not myself in it."

"Life will not break your heart. It'll crush it."

"Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a hopeless romantic who listens to love ballads and doo-wop songs all the time."

"The blues is losing someone you love and not having enough money to immerse yourself in drink."

"My motto is, 'Never quit.'"

"Most Americans are very cool people."

"The world's a better place since I chose music."

"Some music really does suck!"

"I need to do things on my own, need to be left alone."

"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."

"My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud."

"Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated."

"War is very sad and small life is pathetically fragile at times."

"It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew."

"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."

"I just travel the world with my backpack and my cameras and a bunch of Clif bars."

"The scarcity of the music not only makes the music itself enjoyable but it also gives the collector a strange sense of superiority."

"Being an artist is dragging your innermost feelings out, giving a piece of yourself, no matter in which art form, in which medium."

"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."

"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."

"When people hold you in high esteem, it's very delicate relationship. When they meet you they're putting all their chips up. It's make or break."

"I have not the smarts or patience for political office."

"Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on."

"So I'm more at home with my backpack, sleeping in a hotel room or on a bus or on an airplane, than I am necessarily on a bed. It's weird being here. It feels like I'm standing next to my real life."

"I don't mean to be arrogant and I really appreciate my fans but talking about what I am doing is not something I'm good at. I do what I do and that's it. I want to get back to my work and do more of it instead of talking about it."

"Every year, August lashes out in volcanic fury, rising with the din of morning traffic, its great metallic wings smashing against the ground, heating the air with ever-increasing intensity."

"I just get things done instead of talking about getting them done. I don't go out and party. I don't smoke, drink or do drugs and I'm not married, that leaves a lot of time for my work."

"Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better."

"Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts."

"I have come to regard November as the older, harder man's October. I appreciate the early darkness and cooler temperatures. It puts my mind in a different place than October. It is a month for a quieter, slightly more subdued celebration of summer's death as winter tightens its grip."