Quotes from Flea

I was raised to think that rock was music for ignorant people who didn't think for themselves.

About 13-14 years ago, I went back to my alma mater, Fairfax High School, and ran into the music teacher. She invited me to come speak to the kids about the viability of a music career. When I went into the room where I used to play every day in a big orchestra, they had nothing!

Turning 50 is a little bit of a 'taking stock' moment. I feel probably a little dumber. I don't think I'm as sharp as I was when I was younger, but I'm definitely wiser and less likely to make gigantic blunders of an intellectual, spiritual, emotional or physical type.

The quality of instruction is very high at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. It's not about being a rock star. It's about the fundamentals of music, theory and technique on a particular instrument, and playing in an ensemble or private setting.

I studied chord theory and started playing the piano.

Ethiopia is such a great country, beautiful place.

A big part of my life is music education because it changed my life - but arts, academics and athletics should all be equally treated in the school.

If you live a rebellious lifestyle, then you rebel against things because they go against your ideals and the integrity of who you are as a person.

When Hillel died, it was during one of the happiest times of my life. I was married and completely in love and had a baby on the way.

It's so easy to fall into a comfortable groove in life where you do the things that you like, and because of that, often times, we don't grow or change because we're not pushing ourselves.

Outside of a couple of times I ran without eating right or being too tired, I always feel great after I run.

I love literature deeply. I view books as sacred things, and in writing my story, I'm going to do my best to honor the form that has played such a huge part in shaping who I am.

Anything worth doing good takes a little chaos.

The apparatus has to serve our improbability and improvisation. Being good and playing the songs is not enough.

We must improvise, and we must experiment, and we must do things that might go wrong, and everything we bring - the people and the equipment - must serve us in that goal.

The last thing that should happen is funding cut for education; it should be increased. We need to put more money towards education, and anything else is abusive.

We were these arty punks from Hollywood. I considered myself an intellectual.

All I knew about Ethiopia was from a few records that I like, as well as what I read about the famine. But you get there and it's another world. It's filled with art and music and poetry and intellectuals and writers - all kinds of people.

All I knew about Ethiopia was from a few records that I like, as well as what I read about the famine. But you get there and it's another world. It's filled with art and music and poetry and intellectuals and writers - all kinds of people.

It's fun to just get out there and have a nice conversation when I'm running. To be honest, when I do longer runs, the trail that I like to run up in Malibu has mountain lions, so I always feel I want to run with someone else.

When I got with Nina Greenberg, I had been running for a few months already without a trainer. But then she gave me a program and guided me through my runs, showing me how to take care of myself and letting me know I should ice my legs and stretch - stuff I hadn't been doing.

I have a trainer, a really nice woman named Nina Greenberg, and she got me a training plan, and we go running in the canyons in Malibu. It's just beautiful up there, absolutely gorgeous. You see bobcats up there sometimes.

All my career, all that I've really done has been based on emotion and intuition and gravitating toward what sounds good.

I feel like if we're not running, we're basically disrespecting our bodies. When you're running, you're really using your body for what it's meant to do.