Quotes from Mark Lanegan

I'd wear nice clothes and brush my teeth more often if I cared about what people thought.

I think you can find yourself in life perhaps not really being the master of your own life and it is within your own will and tenacity whether you switch the roles or not.

I can't say what people use the experience of listening to songs for, but I would never tell somebody what it is supposed to mean. That defeats the purpose of making it. Hopefully, whoever connects with it connects with it in their own way, and it can mean whatever it is supposed to mean to them.

Have I tried a black pudding? I'll eat anything - I'm not finicky - but that's not to say it takes any courage to eat black puddings because I find them delicious.

The first music I heard that made me put away my comic books and make music was original punk.

I like to fool myself into thinking that whatever happens is OK.

When I was a kid in the late '60s and early '70s, my parents and their friends would play the records of Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como, music with string arrangements and men singing songs that sounded sad whether they were or not.

The guys who spend their time brooding in their younger years either lighten up or go away.

You just realize that you don't know everything there is to know. The older I get, the less I know, and that's a good thing. When I was young, I knew everything, and everything wasn't necessarily good.

I never knew Kurt to be suicidal. I just knew that he was going through a really tough time.

Usually I get asked to do stuff that's cool, and if I ever can't do something, it's usually, because of logistics, I don't have the time for it. Rarely do I get ask to do something that I'd rather not do. I usually do it if I feel that it's something I can do.

It's satisfying and gratifying to make your own music, but I personally don't get the same enjoyment out of the music that I make as I do from somebody else's music that I like.

When I was a kid, I got caught shoplifting by a store security guard in Ellensburg. The next time I saw that store guard was when I got thrown in jail again - this time for not paying court fees. The guy happened to be in jail, too, right next to me. That's what Eastern Washington is like - you never get too far away from anybody.

My favorite record, growing up, was 'Songs of the Haunted House,' a Disney record that was just wackiness. It's still one of my favorites, actually.

In 2005, I worked as a scenic painter for a while when I was taking a break from music.

I've always been haunted by the devastating voice and beautiful songs of Tim Hardin. I can't imagine anyone hearing him and not feeling the same.

I have a high tolerance for pain.

I have to have animals. They really make life worth living, and my world actually revolves around them. They know exactly when it's time to get up, exactly when they're supposed to get their food, and they let you know. Mine are right there in my face, first thing every morning.

It's a different kind of satisfaction, different kind of enjoyment than making your own songs, to remake someone else's song that you really like.

I wanted 'Imitations' to be a fully realized record from start to finish, with a cohesive sound and a sequence that took you from one song to the other, just like I would with a record of original stuff.

Nobody likes to believe that they need anybody's help in anything, and the smarter you are - and I'm not smart - or the tougher you are - and at times I thought I was pretty tough - the more trouble you have.

I think there's something therapeutic in singing about anything, whether it's what you've written or whether it's someone else's song. I find both satisfying in different ways.

I've had songs that were spread out over a number of years, and I've written some in ten minutes, and everything in between.

There's lots of singers that I love; I don't know if I used any of them as role models. Maybe I would have been a better singer when I started if I had.