Quotes from Mike Patton

We're constantly being fed images and being told what to like and what is good, and for the most part, I think people enjoy living that way. It takes a lot of the thinking out of it.

I'm at a point now where I crave healthy musical environments, where there is a genuine exchange of ideas without repressed envy or resentment, and where people in the band want to be there regardless of what public accolades may come their way. Unfortunately, Mr. Bungle was not one of those places.

I am constantly amazed at the musicians that are able to do the same thing over and over for 20 or more years. That would drive me absolutely insane.

I lived in Italy for quite a while and married an Italian woman. While there, I immersed myself in the complete culture: the music, art, literature, film, food, and history. It's easy to fall in love with. As a country, Italy does a good job of holding onto its rich traditions and culture. There's a real lack of embracing history in America.

I'm not a trained musician.

There has to be an element of danger, or at least an element of intrigue, for a band to be interesting.

I had never been taken in like I was in Italy just by saying a few words. That made me feel like I had to put in the effort, and I want to be one of them.

I'm a little tired of travelling the world, jaded as that may sound.

I've got a comfortable home for my music where I can put out whatever the hell I want, and I feel like the slate is really clean, and I can get away with anything. It's a nice, free feeling.

I grew up in a really small town.

I really don't want to put more than a couple of records out a year, and I think that makes sense - on an artistic level, but also for my label.

In earlier years, I was more of a clown with a big bag of tricks. I'd show up in the studio and kind of go, 'Well, what do you want? Do you want the screaming banshee or the howling owl?'

When you come into a pre-existing situation, you gotta have your own thing going. You gotta be really strong about it, and you gotta look at the older material in an aggressive way - 'I'm gonna make this mine somehow.' You need to put your imprint on the situation that you're in.

To me, the stage is like the free zone. That's what makes it exhilarating. For whatever reason, there's this weird little square where it's kind of a romper room for adults.

I think that first and foremost, a lot of turntable artists end up using really the same sounds over and over, and they really get recycled.

From what I've heard, videogame soundtracks - obviously, there's less budget and all of that - it just seems like game soundtracks are farmed out among friends. And it seems like more of an afterthought. It's a videogame. It's much more background.

Some artists can work under one guise, whether it's a name or a band or doing film soundtracks, put all of their ideas in one pot and move on. Me, I need to compartmentalize.

If I was in a bad mood, then maybe I won't talk about it, but you're going to know about it somehow. If something was bothering me, maybe I would have acted a little bit like a child, meaning I go break something in a room.

Not all ideas are like a twinkling star in the sky, and you get inspired to make a record the next day.

As an artist, I would never let myself get boxed in. I'm a human being, too, and like most humans, I have interest in many different types of music.

I have a big mouth.

A lot of people assume that musicians are comrades by nature. It's cutthroat like anything else.

Orchestral musicians have a different approach than we do, and when I say 'we,' I mean musicians who don't know what they are doing.

There's a danger in anything that is unfamiliar. That's the world we live in.