I'm mellower now, I'm over 50. But I don't think I'm too mellow. I'm still angry at a lot of things.

If you listen to the way I speak and watch the way I conduct myself - there's nothing about me that's rock n' roll. It's like, 'Hello, I'm in a rock n' roll band'. 'No, you're a narc.'

There's always going to be a need for activism; there's always going to be a need for you and me doing the right thing, being very Lincoln-sonian in looking out for each other.

In my bright, utopian future world, they will hand out college educations like cups of water at the end of the L.A. Marathon.

I have always identified with Joan Didion's depiction of Los Angeles and Southern California, ever since reading 'Play It As It Lays,' 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' and 'The White Album.'

I have not the smarts or patience for political office.

I always start tours with a great deal of anticipation.

I think it is incumbent on anyone who can to lift human dignity to the highest possible levels, maintaining one's own and helping to raise that of others.

When you're kept out of the adult world, it's a blessing in disguise.

What does New York sound like? For me, the Charlie Parker at the Royal Roost recordings on the Savoy label are the total embodiment of the New York music experience.

Football is at least as 'gay' as rugby, Greco-Roman wrestling and the film '300.'

Humans are pretty crafty but will fold quickly in severe cold.

The arts in America exist in spite of America, not because of America.

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.

My father did not rock. He just earned and hated. Don't end up like this man.

Every single record I have is a fossil.

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

There's something about being under-rested and knowing that the situation is going to remain that way for quite some time that makes things more meaningful.

Most Americans are very cool people.

I have been listening to the Stooges' self-titled first album for well over half my life, and it remains one of the most exciting and essential records I have ever had the good fortune to come into contact with.

Certainly, there are huge, multiplatinum bands whose singers command their audience's attention. Sadly, much of the time they have little to say.

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.

Each year, every city in the world that can should have a multiday festival. More people meeting each other, digging new types of music, new foods, new ideas. You want to stop having so many wars? This could be a step in the right direction.

Maybe I'm ego-tripping, but I don't find myself a particularly horrible person, so I don't think I need to hold back anything I think or feel.

When someone asks you, 'What's punk?' my reply is, 'If you have to ask, you're never going to know.'

There are records that, in my opinion, only reach their full potential when the listener is disoriented.

In blues music, there's a lot of borrowing, so it's often difficult to identify the originator of a song.

Early spring is the time for vigorous change, a preparation for the heat-driven oppression that is to come.

Texas is as odd as it is vast.

To our enemies all over the world who plan America's demise, please take my advice. Give up now. No matter what, you will lose. You will lose it all.

I have been an XL fan of Devo since I was in high school in the 1970s. Their records only sound better with time.

With a book, there's no volume to turn up. You're very naked with a book.

I'm very boring.

If I'm jetlagging, and I've missed some meals, and it gets to that point in a movie that you're supposed to cry, I'll let my defences down from around my inherent standing level of cynicism, and I'll cry.

This is my own little rock theory: In my mind, Nirvana slayed the hair bands. They shot the top off the poodles.

More guns equaling more safety is a slippery slope, and what makes it so is human blood.

I know I was a generic dysfunctional child, but I think a lot of people are.

Sarah Palin embarrasses herself almost immediately upon opening her mouth to speak or upon moving her fingers to send messages to her dull flock.

If I had to live my life in anticipation of what others thought of me, little would get done.

Life is weird, great and dangerous.

I have a lot of compact discs. I need them for radio play and convenience. Many bands and artists I am a fan of don't always release their work on vinyl, so I take what they feel like giving me.

I think the U.K. is an amazing place and has been extremely good to me. Some of my favorite and most-listened-to bands are from England. I have met many good people there and have been in front of some of the most loyal audiences I have ever encountered.

More and more, journalism seems to have hopped out of Truth's pocket and crept into another.

Imagine a 15-year-old kid saying, 'I have two moms - it's cool.' I don't fear that at all.

I get angry about stuff, I get very emotionally intense about stuff and that's how I get it out - with books, with the band, on my own onstage, but it's always kind of a wail.

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.

It is just that I don't want a wife and I don't want kids.

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.

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

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