Quotes from Shawn Crahan

Slipknot started out of tragedy.

Because of Iowa, I like being in a different state that doesn't even have grass and think that I smell fresh-cut grass. It brings me home.

As the world grows and technology grows, it's getting harder to communicate and for kids to socialize.

You're either in music socially and culturally to get through life, or you're not.

The people who you think are the most solid are often the most hurt.

The Backstreet Boys are easy; they're cream. And then here we are, this nine-piece metal militia.

I'm not a fan of the sound quality of our first album, because there's a noise in my head.

This world is ugly, and it's supposed to be, and it has to be in order for art to lead to grandness and beauty.

Maybe I thought the movie business would be a little bit different than the rock n' roll business, but, in fact, they're the same animal, just packaged differently.

I bought a bar because we got banned from playing everywhere else. We were too nuts, and everyone was scared of us. It was Des Moines, Iowa, remember.

I'm not drawn to people that much unless there's a really serious energy happening, but I'll take a lot of pictures of trees, or I'm always staring at the ground. I'll see an oil stain that looks like something out of 'Lord of the Rings' or something, and that's what kind of calls to me... I'm drawn to that aspect of photography.

My oldest boy, when I do skip, he's gonna take over my slot. He was sitting on the stair in diapers wearing my mask with sticks while we were downstairs trying to learn how to be a band.

It's very strange for me to do a comic book for my first movie. But I used to collect - and I love - comic books.

It's not about me. It's about what I'm doing for kids. When I walk out onstage, there's 15,000 kids that, to me, represent potential.

I'm pretty infamous for opening my garage and standing in the middle of it and sneering.

It's just upsetting how the world is - the need and the necessity to override the value of life.

People always ask me: Is it the music? Is it the masks? No, it's all of it. It's Slipknot. It's the optics, it's the masks, it's the music, it's the performance, it's the records.

Why should anybody see our faces? What have our clothes got to do with anything? So we got the masks and the overalls, and we set about developing the most insane live shows that anyone has ever seen.

If I haven't got someone to leave in five minutes for at least one of my films, then I'm not doing my job.

I liked playing drums in the band, but the truth is, I always knew they were going to call Joey to play drums.

We want to push it. We feel we are the envelope.

You can look for something that's equivalent to Slipknot, and you're going to fail miserably.

'American Psycho' is violent. 'Apocalypse Now' is violent. 'Officer Downe' is a comic and not violent to me.

I don't look at my work as being violent. 'Officer Downe' is more campy than anything. It's a comic book, so it's funny to me.