Quotes from Henry Rollins

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

I don't know if music has ever achieved anything past appealing to the people that it appeals to. If a song could stop a war, then Bob Marley and Bob Dylan songs would have stopped one or two.

But can a song stop a war? If Bob Marley and Bob Dylan couldn't do it, it can't be done.

If you think about it, every single species is endangered. Homo sapiens at the front of the line, mosquitoes and lawyers at the back.

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.

For me, returning to Los Angeles annihilates the memories of where I have just been with an astonishing speed.

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.

There's no rule that you have to like Henry Rollins the musician or the actor.

Scott Asheton was a brilliant drummer, a natural musician.

My unconditional sure thing is that I don't have one.

One of the nice things about a favorite pop song is that it's an unconditional truce on judgment and musical snobbery. You like the song because you just do, and there need not be any further criticism.

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.

Spring and fall, those are very inspiring times of the year for me.

Sleep is for squares.

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

I have to do things for myself, and if those standards are set high, then it's up to me to pass or fail.

If I'm jetlagging, and I've missed some meals, and it gets to that point in a movie that you're supposed to cry, I'll let my defences down from around my inherent standing level of cynicism, and I'll cry.

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.

Anything in this culture that stands still long enough eventually becomes okay if a person can derive an income from it. Eventually, pay-per-view public execution will happen, and it will be half-time entertainment.

I feel close to people like Jimi Hendrix because I connect with his music. Not the man but what he did.

Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela had and still has many detractors.

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.

It took me until my teenage years to realize that I was medicating with music. I was pushing back against my stupid school uniform, instructors who called me by my last name and my classmates, who, while friendly enough, were not at all inspiring.

To me, the real 'state of the union' is found in how Americans react to current events.