Henry Rollins Quotes

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I can only write about personal stuff, about my point of view.

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.

This is my 25th year of being on stage. A lot of people who I kind of toed up to the starting line with are no longer in this position. I feel very, very lucky.

I can deal with people who watch me on stage but I am not good in communicating with people any other way than through my work.

I think about the meaning of pain. Pain is personal. It really belongs to the one feeling it. Probably the only thing that is your own. I like mine.

I love to go on stage and sing.

Keep your blood clean, your body lean, and your mind sharp.

Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.

Life will not break your heart. It`ll crush it.

Whenever I get dumped (by a girlfriend), I nail the door shut so that no one can come inside, get a towel and clip it around my neck so it`s like a Superman cape, take off my shoes so I can slide across the room, and...get a fake mic, like a celery stick or a pen, and I play any record that features the vocalist Ronnie James Dio. And you can just pretend you`re Dio, because on every album he does, he has minimum one, usually three, *EVIL WOMAN LOOK OUT!*- songs.

I don`t believe in fate or destiny. I believe in various degrees of hatred, paranoia, and abandonment. However much of that gets heaped upon you doesn`t matter - it`s only a matter of how much you can take and what it does to you.

Being an artist is dragging your innermost feelings out, giving a piece of yourself, no matter in which art form, in which medium.

Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.

Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated.

So, one way or another, I found myself in a few movies. I take it seriously when I`m on the set, but I don`t take myself seriously as an actor.

What I don`t want to do is go out there and not be able to mean it, you know?

I just get things done instead of talking about getting them done. I don`t go out and party. I don`t smoke, drink or do drugs and I`m not married, that leaves a lot of time for my work.

Want a good body? Work at it. Want to be a success? Work at it. Want to be truly exceptional? Be a touch insane... You need a little bit of insanity to do great things.

I mean I appreciate fan mail and that the people like what I am doing but I can`t answer it. If I would answer 25 letters a day I would be just a guy answering mail and not an artist anymore.

I want to change things for the better, just like everybody else.

When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive.

I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.

Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner, but I feel more lonely in a crowed room with boring people than I feel on my own.

Don`t do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts.

I don`t mean to be arrogant and I really appreciate my fans but talking about what I am doing is not something I`m good at. I do what I do and that`s it. I want to get back to my work and do more of it instead of talking about it.

Nothing brings people together more, then mutual hatred.

As long as I tell the truth I feel that nobody can touch me.

Sometimes the truth hurts. And sometimes it feels real good.

I forged myself out of a vacuum. I crawl along the highway on hacked off stumps year after year. Some wonder how and why. I never do.

If you hate your parents, the man, or the establishment, don`t show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really want to rebel against your parents: outearn them, outlive them, and know more than they do.

I need to do things on my own, need to be left alone.

I`m most in my element on tour, with a gig that day, like today. I`m on the road where I am supposed to be. I will be where I`m supposed to be at nighttime, on stage, in front of people, doing my thing.

Giving a good performance, giving it all is what it`s all about. I love to perform.

There`s no such thing as an ex-junkie.

Nothing brings people together more than a mutual hatred.

I`m 36 and if I met a woman of my own age and married her, I`d also be marrying her former life, her past. It might be OK for some people - I don`t want to judge it or anything - but it`s not for me. It would destroy my creativity.

You can get away with a lot of shit if it looks like it`s all you know how to do.

It`s sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.

I don`t mind The Boss. I think he`s an honest guy. I have some of his records, not all of them. I`ve met a couple of the E-Street guys, and they seem really cool.

My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.

I can`t remember that I ever had just a minute of stage fright.

Well, we run my ship differently. Any offer that comes in, I yay or nay it, no matter how insane it is. Like, if someone asks me if I`m interested in doing a porn film, the answer to that is going to be no, but it comes to me anyway. I`m responsible for making the call.

Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn`t worth the time and effort.

The only difference between me and others is that they think they can change something with cute little poems, nice cards or embracing trees and being nice to little lapdogs.

The blues is losing someone you love and not having enough money to immerse yourself in drink.

So I`m more at home with my backpack, sleeping in a hotel room or on a bus or on an airplane, than I am necessarily on a bed. It`s weird being here. It feels like I`m standing next to my real life.

It is just that I don`t want a wife and I don`t want kids.

In the summer of `84, you just couldn`t escape the Born in the USA record.

I`ve always seen it as the role of an artist to drag his inside out, give the audience all you`ve got. Writers, actors, singers, all good artists do the same. It isn`t supposed to be easy.

To hate is to show you still care, who needs that, focus on what`s really important.