Gene Simmons Quotes

Everyone in Kiss is replaceable. My ego will tell you that I am not, but that's not so.

You need to eat, but you don't really need to eat filet mignon every night or buy bottles of champagne at a thousand a pop.

The problem you ultimately want to have, as an entrepreneur, is deciding who to help, not deciding who can help you.

Within the perfect situation, not everything is perfect.

Never underestimate the power of being popular in pop culture. You have to be able to do something. You can have a good seat at the restaurant, but you still have to pay for the meal. Fame is important, but to be rich is more important.

Women, you have all this power, I'm telling you. In business, you have something called an inferred fiduciary duty to yourself. Look at the other hugely successful women in industry, commerce, science and everywhere else and you'll see women who are feminine, beautiful but also do not rely on men for their self-empowerment.

I'm forbidden fruit. Once you go to certain households, mommy doesn't want you to see that dirty man who sticks his tongue out and spits out blood and all that stuff.

Don't believe bands who say it's all about the fans and they want to give their music away for free. The result is they will continue to live in their mother's basement.

The root of all evil isn't money; rather, it's not having enough money.

I am an entrepreneur in the classic mold. No matter what I do - outside of sticking my tongue out - I tend to make money, and quite a bit in non-KISS stuff.

Your date will not be impressed by you throwing up on her brand-new shoes, as you spout poetic babblings that are meaningful only to you.

If you're building a house, or doing anything, time is what you've got. Well, there's effort, but you need time. The more time you put into something, the better stuff you can make.

Anyone who tells you they got into rock'n'roll for reasons other than girls, fame and money is full of s***.

I fly economy. I do often fly first class, but I don't travel with a posse, or bodyguard, or an assistant.

The biggest financial pitfall in life is divorce. And the biggest reason for divorce is marriage.

I would urge all bands that say they only care about credibility and don't care about money to send Gene Simmons every dollar that they don't want. I'd be happy to take it off them.

I like to approach every day like it's the only day I will ever have.

Fans like their heroes simple. I'm supposed to stick out my tongue twenty-four hours a day and do nothing else.

If you're the greatest, it's okay to say you're the greatest. My suggestion to everybody is to be their own greatest fan. Weaker personas and personalities define that as egotistical or arrogant, but what it means is their self-esteem isn't that strong.

I crave ideas, and when an idea hits me, it grips me and it tortures me until I master it.

Imagine there are no men in life,

I have sold my soul to the devil.

I don't know whether you [musician] can be all things to everybody, which is why there are different kinds of music.

If someone likes you, they'll buy what you're selling, whether or not they need it.

If you choose to become a smoker, you are an idiot, and you may lack the discipline and intelligence to be a successful entrepreneur.

William Shakespeare sounds to me like some kind of faggot.

It's in the history books, the Holocaust. It's just a phrase. And the truth is it happened yesterday. It happened to my mother. I never met my grandmothers or my grandfathers. They were all wiped up in the gas chambers of Nazi Germany.

Unless you took courses in architecture, engineering, or pre-med, the rest of your liberal arts education hardly prepares you for life as the business warrior and champion you envision yourself to be.

The best you can do is set your kids on the right track; staying on it without falling is up to the kids.

I don't wait for the calendar to figure out when I should live life.

When you walk through a bad neighborhood, you don't want a poodle by your side. You want a Rottweiler.

You can't go through life and leave things the way they are. We can all make a difference, and if I die today, I know I made a difference.

You can't start motoring up life's road until you get your buns in gear.

Kiss is not a charity. Never, ever mix commerce and charity.

I hope the guy who came up with the phrase 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' rots in hell, I'd like to change it so it makes more sense: 'sex death and rock 'n' roll'

What we have is pretty meaningless. It's what we are that counts.

With just a little effort, life can be more or less exceptionally tolerable.

If you look at the CEOs of some the most successful companies in the world like IKEA, they never fly first class. They always go economy.

I'm aware, as a sane person, that I'm not the best-looking guy in the world. I'm aware of it. But when I go into a party, I will walk out with your girlfriend.

Anybody who picks up a guitar and tells you that there's some inner message that they're trying to convey ... it's nonsense. They're not being honest. The reason they're doing this is they wanna get lots of chicks and they don't want to work for a living.

When you look at Clark Kent when he's working at the Daily Planet, he's a reporter. He doesn't fly through the air in his glasses and his suit.

You and I and everyone else have the attention span of gnats. And that means that saying or doing anything once simply doesn't work.

A good marriage can be ruined by poor communications - and by forgetting to put the lid back down.

Get rid of the friends who want you to spend your whole day doing nothing with them. They're not your friends. They're your enemies.

Rock bands are a lot like football teams: If a guy is on drugs and messes up, get someone else who's proud to wear the uniform and be part of the team.

People who are the salt of the earth get up and go to a job that they hate.

I work for everything I've got. I started off as a very poor kid. I want to get paid.

My mother is probably the wisest person I've ever known. She's not schooled, she's not well read. But she has a philosophy of life that makes well-read people seem like morons.

There's an old adage that says that money is the root of all evil. Bullshit. Lack of money is the root of all evil.

Our perception of yesterday is the foundation for our expectations of tomorrow.

It is really sad for the new artists. Where's the next Elvis, where's the next Beatles, where's the Zeppelin? They're out there but they don't have a chance because once upon a time we [musicians of the 60s] had record companies, and they would support you and have point of purchase material and they would give you advances. In other words, they gave you the air to breathe to find yourself and spend the time to learn how to run.

I'm from Israel, so America has no limits. I started a record label, and then I started managing other artists, like Liza Minelli.

There are no limitations to any of our dreams.

When you're busy doing your own stuff it's like running a race. You try not to look over your shoulder to see who else is in the race, you do the best you can.

Gene Simmons planned on being a success the moment he launched himself out of his mother's womb.

Never negotiate with kids. They don't have life experience, and they don't have repercussions for bad decisions; they still get fed and housed.

I fail all of the time. It means nothing.

Our job is to leave the world a little better than we found it. Not the same ... not worse ... better.

Elvis is the king of rock and roll, who made white kids shake there shackle.

Prince, sad to say, has passed on!!!He was a Giant. My deep condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.

Happy new year everbody! And remember: be kind to eachother.

Wealth for its own sake is an empty shell. Wealth that includes making other people's lives better will reward you even more than the beautiful mansion you live in.

Believe me, the library is the temple of God. Education is the most sacred religion of all.

Education, especially business education will only give you tools. What you do with these tools is all that matters. Life and business isn't paint by numbers. You have to think for yourself. You have to invent yourself. You have an inferred fiduciary mandate to yourself, and that means, it's your responsibility to learn people skills, and language skills, in order to increase your chances of success. You also have to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right thing. Mostly and invariably, the real product you're going to be selling is ... .you.

I worship scones and danishes. If I never had another meal, I wouldn't care as long as I could eat pastries and jelly doughnuts.

Rock is about finding who you are. You don't necessarily have to play your instrument very well at all. You can just barely get by and you can be in a rock band.

My skin is more beautiful than yours. I would be quite more popular in jail if I so chose.

No. Better research needed. Fire your research person. No fishnet stockings. Never. Not in this band.

The sad thing is most people have to check with someone before they do the things that make them happy. We're all passing through; the least we can do is be happy, and the only way to do that is by being selfish.

No one has the right to shake his finger in your face.

England is a profoundly bizarre place that has produced thousands of bands the world has worshipped.

Fiscally, I'm very conservative. I don't believe in welfare states. I believe in giving people jobs.

The only jobs kids have are to do well in school, to be charming and polite, and be thankful. That's it. I'll house you, protect you, I'll even give my life for you, and in return, you will behave.

Most people are so busy living they neglect to take the time to ask why.

Well, I'm like most Americans, we don't vote by party, we both by the person because a person is bigger than the party, which is why sometimes the Democrats get in and sometimes the Republicans get in.

Men want success and sex. Women want everything.

I also learned that I love making money. Anyone who is not afraid of work will be happy with the money they make.

When I meet a woman, I don't think, 'Gee, I wonder if she's read the latest thesis by Stephen Hawking? I think, 'Great tits.'

Walk amongst the natives by day, but in your heart be Superman.

You have to understand that nothing appeals to everybody.

I don't wanna go on vacation. There's nothing about it that appeals to me. People look forward to doing that; I look forward to getting up every day and doing something.

I'm in a weird band. We've done very well. The American Dream is alive and well.

Being a Jew, you realize your strongest weapon is your mind.

I want to do everything. I want to be the president, I want to learn Tae Kwan Do, I want to climb mountains. I'm always bugged by the notion that I can't do everything.

I voted for President Bush, I voted for President Clinton, and, although I do want my vote back, I voted for President Obama.

Television and comic books are, and continue to be, probably the biggest influence in my life. It's the biggest influence on everybody's life.

My sense is that file sharing started in predominantly white, middle- and upper-middle-cl ass young people who were native-born, who felt they were entitled to have something for free, because that's what they were used to.

I've always been anti-marriage for men until they become mature. As a species we don't mature until we're in our 60s.

I have to have an emotional connection to what I am ultimately selling because it is emotion, whether you are selling religion, politics, even a breath mint.

I think that Shakespeare is a s***. Absolute s***! He may have been a genius for his time, but I just can't relate to that stuff. "Thee and thous" - the guy sounds like a faggot.

If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs,

When you really think about it, I'm not delusional enough to think that what I do is important to life as we know it on this planet. No. But neither is what you do.

James Bond has a license to kill, rockstars have a license to be outrageous. Rock is about grabbing people's attention.

There are many really stupid ideas that wind up being brilliant, if you can implement them.

If your songs connect with the fans and they pump their fists in the air and go "Yeah!!" that's when a song really works. That's the electric church of it. The glory hallelujah of it.

In theater, you're playing characters. You believe you're somebody else, and you're acting.

That's why I'm a big supporter of the death penalty. I want to be the hangman. I would put many more people to death like the kids who want to kill other people, I'd put 'em to death. Postal workers who get arrested, they have mental problems. You know what? When you're dead you don't have a mental problem. If you take a life, I will take yours. Put me in charge, I will fix it.

Better to discuss everything out in the open while you're in love, then if or when the relationship sadly ends. It's called Full Disclosure Before The Fact.

People are only what we believe them to be.

It's hard to see your destination when you're focused on the cracks in the sidewalk.