Chris Cornell Quotes

Children should always feel like the adults are living in this world to nurture them, to take care of them, to protect them from any bad thing that might come.

The freedom I have as a U.S. citizen is unparalleled. Despite the fact people may not like American passports, having that passport affords me more freedoms than any other passport could.

I started as a drummer, so I sort of took on singing duties by default. I had sung backgrounds and some lead vocals from behind the drums in different bands that I'd been in, and I'd gotten great responses for the songs I would sing. I really started pursuing the possibility of being a lead singer based on the fact that I was working a full-time restaurant job and then playing gigs at night, hauling drums around. One day, it just dawned on me that, 'Hey, I could be in a band and be the singer, and it would be a lot easier!'

There's a lot of music that I don't like.

You make me drop things
Like all the plans I had for a life without you

There's something about losing friends, particularly young people, where it's not something that you get over. I don't believe there's a healing process.

I've had a long career and I want to continue to have a long career. The way to do that is not to go away.

She gives the night its dreams.

If you're an American kid, you can't help but be influenced by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones because they're always on the radio.

People don't realize how much fun it is to be depressed.

I'm not a lyric writer to make statements. What I enjoy doing is making paintings with lyrics, creating colorful images. I think that's more what entertainment and music should be.

The reason there's no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn't have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think.

Radio and TV can still push a band, but things need to be shaken up. There is the Internet, but mostly what I see there is little kids on YouTube playing music.

I got in touch with the creative process between the age of 14 and 16, mainly because I was alone so much.

I don't really go to clubs so I don't know what sounds are made there,

Swallowing rivers belongs to the sea.

When the whole thing washes away, don't run to me.

To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.

If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving.

I think the concept of commercials, for example, I have had offers to do songs in different commercials, and it is not what I have liked.

I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota.

Everybody is influenced by someone.

Worried moon
I'm afraid of what's to come
Worried moon
Yeah, tell me what you know
Worried moon
You see further down the road
Worried moon

The words you say never live up to the words in your head.

My first favorite band that made music important to me was the Beatles. I was a little kid. I didn't know who was singing what song or who wrote what song.

I have a hard time narrowing things down to ten or 12 songs. If I walk off stage in anything less than two hours, it just feels strange. It feels early.

I put millions of miles
Under my heels
And still too close to you
I feel

Be yourself is all that you can do.

I'm not usually in a talkative mode.

I actually think to some degree that people are down for longer shows with an acoustic show.

I feel like you're not a real musician or entertainer if you can't go into a room, pick up an instrument and entertain people.

What do you think Jesus would twitter, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone' or 'Has anyone seen Judas? He was here a minute ago.'

We are neighbors in a modern world where proximity is relative and the threshold to our hearts moves outside time and space.

I used to work in jobs I hated because I needed the money to buy a guitar. I know what it feels like to be depressed. On the other hand, I also know what it feels like to have money, to be successful, to be independent, but I can tell you that money and success never solve your problems.

I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That's not gone away.

When you start your first band and it has an impact on the rest of the world you go through a lot with those guys and you become very protective of that legacy.

And I'm lost behind
The words I'll never find
And I'm left behind
As seasons roll on by

What formed me as a musician, a songwriter, the sound and personality of my band, a whole lot of that happened well before 1991.

My brother brought home 'At San Quentin' when I was about 7, and we played it over and over again.

In the United States, workouts tend to focus on body image and how you look. For me, it's really all about the brain.

Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth. We're more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage.

Friends of mine that are from here or that have spent time here have told me about Israel and how warm the people are and that I should someday come here.

I don't get in there and create a character. It's more of a voice that I hear living inside the music.

Sometimes, if a song is written, in essence, to be that stripped down, it's very touchy when you start adding things, because even the smallest thing can have a huge impact. Somebody has to make the decision that there's a better song in there if there's less.

I can go from one extreme to another, from playing at the Sydney Opera House on the Songbook tour to shows with Soundgarden at Voodoo Fest, all in a week.

I don't think there are too many rock bands in history that can look at the beginning and middle and ending of themselves and see what I see when I think of Soundgarden. I think from the beginning through the middle and the end it was such a perfect ride and such a perfect legacy to leave,

Once you sit in front of people and start playing songs, it's all on you. No matter what happens, it's entirely your responsibility the entire time. I like that intensity.

What's important is to get into shape and then not to have to worry about it. I don't want to get on stage and not being able to do something. Not being physically fit doesn't work for me.

'The Beatles' did whatever they wanted. They were a collection of influences adapted to songs they wanted to write. George Harrison was instrumental in bringing in Indian music. Paul McCartney was a huge Little Richard fan. John Lennon was into minimalist aggressive rock.

I had to teach myself to let go of the conventional rock way of playing guitar and singing. Some things you wouldn't expect to work, did and some things won't ever work.