Top 100 Henry Rollins Quotes
#1. Michele Bachmann is always a great person to go to for an opinion about anything. She has a very active and interesting mind.
Henry Rollins
#3. I like the idea of someone else's love safely sealed in a song or a book.
Henry Rollins
#4. It took me until my teenage years to realize that I was medicating with music. I was pushing back against my stupid school uniform, instructors who called me by my last name and my classmates, who, while friendly enough, were not at all inspiring.
Henry Rollins
#5. Horror jolts me when I look at one of you and see a pair of beautiful eyes that make me think your mind might contain a world that could hold me as the bolts shake loose and fly from my frame.
Henry Rollins
#7. I work pretty much every day. I can't really separate it from life, so I guess the work is my life.
Henry Rollins
#8. Quite often governments are one way and the people are another.
Henry Rollins
#9. Kids need parents who love and support them unconditionally, full stop.
Henry Rollins
#10. Anyone who wants to help me doesn't. Anyone who wants to kill me might. Anyone who wants to love me better not.
Henry Rollins
#11. I'm disappointed by bands left and right, every day.
Henry Rollins
#12. I can't remember that I ever had just a minute of stage fright.
Henry Rollins
#13. The scarcity of the music not only makes the music itself enjoyable but it also gives the collector a strange sense of superiority.
Henry Rollins
#15. Politics is a thing that I follow because it determines what is going on in my country, but I vote and deal with politicians with a great degree of jaundiced eye.
Henry Rollins
#16. Not that the writers weren't good. I believe in those books and those writers very much. It's just that in the climate it's really hard to keep the lights on and the doors open when you're selling poetry and literature that appeals to a fringe audience.
Henry Rollins
#17. Sitting in a room, alone, listening to a CD is to be lonely. Sitting in a room alone with an LP crackling away, or sitting next to the turntable listening to a song at a time via 7-inch single is enjoying the sublime state of solitude.
Henry Rollins
#18. Always knowing you're going to die
And until then knowing you've got to live.
Henry Rollins
#19. I have watched independent record stores evaporate all over America and Europe. That's why I go into as many as I can and buy records whenever possible. If we lose the independent record store, we lose big. Every time you buy your records at one of these places, it's a blow to the empire.
Henry Rollins
#20. If you paid Americans a living wage, they would be able to pay for products made by Americans in America.
Henry Rollins
#21. 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.'
Henry Rollins
#22. If some band sucks, you're going to have to find out about it for yourself, because I don't have the interest in issuing warnings.
Henry Rollins
#23. Rush Limbaugh makes money getting simpleminded people to feel good about their intellectually undernourished brain spasms. He's very good at it, and I scarcely believe a fraction of what he says.
Henry Rollins
#24. 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.
Henry Rollins
#25. As a young person, I was on the road playing music, so I was getting new environments shoved in my face whether I wanted them or not.
Henry Rollins
#26. I wonder if it is Australia's great distance from more populated land masses that allows its inhabitants to be left to their own devices, to be incredibly creative and, at times, to be wonderfully weird.
Henry Rollins
#27. I do a lot of stuff for free anyway. Like a lot of people who you see who don't need money. Mick Jagger - he needs money? He just likes to go sing Satisfaction every night. If I wrote that song I probably would do it too.
Henry Rollins
#28. I'm not a conservative or a republican but I know that there's conservative republicans who I probably vigorously disagree with but I also am smart enough, or something enough, to understand that they really think that they're right, and they're looking at me like I'm crazy.
Henry Rollins
#29. Hopefully, one enhances [when growing older] his sense of humor. As he approaches 50, he'll need all the humor he can get.
Henry Rollins
#30. If there was a god, he wouldn't let a guy walk right up and shoot you in the face now would he? That's right, now you get the picture. Truth burns doesn't it?
Henry Rollins
#31. I like it better that people aren't throwing stuff at my face and trying to fight me on stage. Like in the '80s, it was just aggravating all the time. I have scars from cigars and cigarettes on me, Bic pens, burns from cigarette lighters, all that.
Henry Rollins
#32. You always know the mark of a coward. A coward hides behind freedom. A brave person stands in front of freedom and defends it for others.
Henry Rollins
#33. America is off-the-hook gay. I will not go all Ann Coulter on you and say, 'Our gays are better than their gays,' but as far as countries go, we are in-your-face gay.
Henry Rollins
#34. Now you see how you are, the wisdom mixed in with all the scars.
Henry Rollins
#35. The perpetrators of the actual bad stuff that does real and lasting harm to people, like leakage of industrial chemicals into water systems, seem to get not so much as a second glance; the bloviation from media pundits and think tanks creates false problems that waste time and energy debunking.
Henry Rollins
#36. A lot of Americans don't have a passport, never will have a passport. Not only will they not travel, they don't want to travel.
Henry Rollins
#37. I don't mind bees and think we are all the better for having them around. I like the taste of honey.
Henry Rollins
#38. Pride is a thing that I have tried to abandon completely. Try as I might, pride still creeps into many of the things I do.
Henry Rollins
#39. In Israel, there's a lot to learn from anyone, because to live there you've got to deal with the truth. Things happen real fast. Your day goes from cool to catastrophic in one second. Israelis know that the cafe you're in could blow up, or the shopping mall, and they rock that.
Henry Rollins
#40. Being unique is never easy, and often, by the time culture catches up with you, there are only a few people who notice.
Henry Rollins
#41. The only safety is in the middle of total misunderstanding and deception.
Henry Rollins
#42. 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.
Henry Rollins
#43. I think there is something very interesting about people who live day to day in an environment where they could get taken out by a wild animal. There has to be some kind respect that is derived from that relationship.
Henry Rollins
#44. I've never raped or killed anybody, or hurt a kid. I've done all the more inept, high-volume stuff - like, "Whoops, sorry I came in your hair. Don't worry, I won't use your name when I tell this story on stage."
Henry Rollins
#45. All I can do is just do stuff while I am alive and hopefully that track record will speak for itself.
Henry Rollins
#46. I have healthy disagreements with political parties I'm not aligned with, but I don't think it should be to the point where we're cursing and trying to strangle each other.
Henry Rollins
#47. I feel pain everyday of my life. When you see me perform, it's that pain you're seeing coming out. I put all my emotions, all my feelings, and my body on the line. People hurt me, I hurt myself - mentally, physically
Henry Rollins
#48. My unconditional sure thing is that I don't have one.
Henry Rollins
#50. When I am in Africa, I always have the feeling that it's where everything started. When I am in New York, I know it is where everything ended up.
Henry Rollins
#51. In the city of Pyongyang, you don't have to look very far to see an image of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung. They love the guy. He is responsible for the wonder that is North Korea.
Henry Rollins
#52. One of the nice things about a favorite pop song is that it's an unconditional truce on judgment and musical snobbery. You like the song because you just do, and there need not be any further criticism.
Henry Rollins
#53. The most interesting place by far was Afghanistan. Just because it is a place that I cannot see myself living. The hardness of the people and the history of the country is just so completely intense.
Henry Rollins
#54. Fish is the only kind of respirating thing that I consume. Everything else I don't want any part of.
Henry Rollins
#55. To burn a CDR of music you like to give as a gift to someone you wish to become closer to is a cold, moist-palmed, mouth-breathing bummer.
Henry Rollins
#56. America is a rough room and you don't know what might come your way, so you have to be prepared for almost anything.
Henry Rollins
#57. 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.
Henry Rollins
#58. I feel like a visitor that got left behind by his ride.
Henry Rollins
#59. We are misery-making machines! Homo sapiens has perfected the art of causing suffering. Pain is humankind's collective GDP.
Henry Rollins
#60. Airports in major cities, like LAX, are trippy environments. It is at once a national and international gathering of those in transition: The euphoric, emerging from planes, their journey at an end, and the determined, about to depart.
Henry Rollins
#61. I would like go to Palestine and interview people there about what their lives are like; same thing in Iran.
Henry Rollins
#64. After I left D.C. to join Black Flag, I felt I was in a band.
Henry Rollins
#65. I don't hate people - not remotely other than they make you crazy in traffic, but as I get older I kind of see more and more why people do what they do.
Henry Rollins
#66. Life is full of choices, if you have the guts to go for it. That's why I get immediately bored with anyone's complaining about how boring their life is, or how bad their town is. Fucking leave and go somewhere else. Or don't.
Henry Rollins
#67. I'm not into fame. I'm not into making money, outside of financing my books. I'm not into status. My thing is basically about time - not wasting it.
Henry Rollins
#68. When someone asks you, 'What's punk?' my reply is, 'If you have to ask, you're never going to know.'
Henry Rollins
#69. Friends come and go but 200lbs is always 200lbs.
Henry Rollins
#70. Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.
Henry Rollins
#71. I have never experienced anything like walking out onto the stage of an oversold venue and, before the first note is struck, realizing that there is not going to be enough oxygen for all of us.
Henry Rollins
#72. With a book, there's no volume to turn up. You're very naked with a book.
Henry Rollins
#73. I'm actually on the Twitter like all those crazy young kids are, and if I'm going to do an in-store appearance or I post something on my website, I tweet these followers, a word I don't like so much, and over 50,000 people go, like, 'Okay, I got it.'
Henry Rollins
#74. Strength is the product of struggle, you must do what others don't to achieve what others won't.
Henry Rollins
#75. Most of the people who call me a sellout were 7 when I was down face-first in the punk trenches.
Henry Rollins
#76. The more I learn about Mr. Romney, the less there is to admire.
Henry Rollins
#77. Shirley Sherrod seems like a good and dedicated person.
Henry Rollins
#78. If I could go to Kabul and not die, I would go back to Afghanistan as soon as I could. And, that was the most interesting place that I've been to.
Henry Rollins
#79. I read a bit of Ray Bradbury when I was a younger man. I don't read a lot of fiction anymore ... like, none.
Henry Rollins
#80. I know you'll never love me but maybe you'll stay for awhile.
Henry Rollins
#81. There is not one single police officer in America that I am not afraid of and not one that I would trust to tell the truth or obey the laws they are sworn to uphold. I do not believe they protect me in any way.
Henry Rollins
#82. I am neither pro- nor anti-gun. I am gun-conscious.
Henry Rollins
#83. The Ninja, as you know, operates by stealth. And so, case in point: I put out records ... no one hears them! I make videos ... (whispers) no one sees! I go on tour ... (whispers) no one knows! NINJA! I was never here!
Henry Rollins
#84. 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.
Henry Rollins
#85. The idea that any performer type is owed anything is a joke to me.
Henry Rollins
#86. It's one thing to buy a copy of 'Atlas Shrugged.' You actually have to read it to get anything out of it.
Henry Rollins
#87. If I had to live my life in anticipation of what others thought of me, little would get done.
Henry Rollins
#88. If the Constitution was a movie, the Preamble would be the trailer, the First Amendment the establishing shot, the 13th the crowd pleaser and the 14th the ultimate hero scene.
Henry Rollins
#89. We humans are hard to deal with. We are a loud, complex and demanding bunch. Often, we are best dealt with from a safe distance and for only brief periods of time. This could be why a lot of marriages fail.
Henry Rollins
#90. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to tour with the Beastie Boys and watched almost every set they played on all those dates. Why not? You do your set and then you get to see the Beasties play? Best deal in town.
Henry Rollins
#91. I think, to a great degree, we humans still divide ourselves into two species, even though we are monotypic. There are males and females. We see them as different and not equal.
Henry Rollins
#92. I'm constantly around people that talk a lot but say nothing. A sad case.
Henry Rollins
#93. I always start tours with a great deal of anticipation.
Henry Rollins
#94. To my ears, jazz sounds better in warm weather and after the sun has gone down. While I will listen to some of my favorite jazz records in cooler weather, it's the warmer nights that really make them come alive. Something about those sounds and the heat of the night really makes it happen for me.
Henry Rollins
#95. I don't get a lot of choices in movies. It's not like I'm Brad Pitt and I can walk in and go 'here's the film I want to do' and everyone runs around. I don't have that. I stand in line and do auditions. I'm there with 80 other guys trying to be that guy. Every once in awhile I luck out.
Henry Rollins
#96. I wonder what it's like to be from a state that is spread across a few islands way out in the Pacific Ocean, only added to the United States in 1959. Not only that but to be the birthplace of America's first black president? Pretty cool, I bet.
Henry Rollins
#97. Maybe I'm just a psycho, and the stage is a better place to go than either the loony bin or somewhere else.
Henry Rollins
#98. In blues music, there's a lot of borrowing, so it's often difficult to identify the originator of a song.
Henry Rollins
#99. The bible saw that can get a lot of people killed, so let's try and steer people away from that. I am not an expert on the bible. I am just saying.
Henry Rollins
#100. I am an employment hyena. I am happy to make a meal of what the lions leave behind.
Henry Rollins
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