Paul Stanley Quotes

Don't kid yourself; the guy who's onstage in ripped-up jeans is wearing as much a costume as I am.

Nashville may be famed for its country music, but this may well be the capital of rock and roll music in the United States of America.

Gene snapped at Peter: "Peter, you're an illiterate idiot who can't read or even talk correctly and never finished school." "Yeah," said Peter, "and I'm in the same band as you.

you get nothing with a fist that you can't get in multitudes with your hand open.

Your life and destiny are determined to a large extent by your participation in the outcome.

I don't know what's more embarrassing, these musicians and actors talking about politics in interviews or the media actually giving them credibility about it. It's absurd that a celebrity could speak out on the economy or politics with no more justification than a hit album or a movie.

I think KISS has always been about celebrating self-empowerment. Celebrating the idea that anything is possible with determination and hard work.

in order to be comfortable with other people, you have to be comfortable with yourself.

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

The only exercise I got as a kid was fork to mouth. Food was equated with love in my household. I thought you left the table when the zipper was down and you'd explode if you took another bite. I'd eat my plate and then everyone else's leftovers.

I've seen myself do stuff on stage that was pretty amazing. I think that would be true for any athlete. Any top athlete will see something that they are very proud of. All my injuries will attest to the fact that besides being a musician, it comes down to being an athlete.

Core strengthening is key to everything. It's not just about the way I look, but about stabilizing my body so I can perform better on stage.

As big as my ego may be, I'm really not of the belief that I can't be replaced. I didn't invent the wheel. There's someone else out there who can do what I do, maybe a little differently. I believe that Kiss is bigger than its individual members.

I was also skeptical about what all the grunge bands would do on their second albums. There were a lot of great first albums, but what would they do once they were platinum acts instead of kids living in roach-infested garages? I mean, if they were so miserable, once they had money, they could all go see shrinks.

Trying to show people how talented and bright you are is the best way to make an idiot of yourself, and we ended up doing that with flying colors.

There are no fans more rabid or devoted than KISS fans. KISS fans are what all other fans are measured against. That's how it came to be known as the KISS Army.

I never thought being the producer was being the dictator. It means being the director and being the coach. It's a way of keeping everybody focused on the goal, and also having final say. Everybody can be in the same car, but somebody has to drive.

I was lucky enough as a kid to spend most of my weekends at the Fillmore East. On a great night, that was like a Holy Roller evangelical church.

I wasn't crazy - I didn't see us in the same league as Zeppelin.

Nothing could ever stop Kiss. I've seen the band in down times where critics were like vultures circling overhead saying things like, 'Well, you know it's the end of your career.'

The great thing about doing art shows is you get to meet the people who are interested in your art, and I think that when you're purchasing a piece of art it's a tremendous bonus to get to meet the artist because you get a chance to pick their brain a bit and find out first hand what the piece is about for the artist.

Gene sometimes ... well, he has his dream list.

Youth is incredible because you really do feel invincible.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is marketing. You've got a bunch of faceless people in a back room who trademark a name that sounds very official. Well, if you had thought of it first, you would have been the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Judging others and being quick to criticize just pollutes your life. Learning how to open your hand is the best thing you can possibly learn.

America is a business. If you can't afford to do something, no matter how much bellyaching everybody does ... I'm so sorry, if you can't afford it, you shouldn't do it.

Whenever anybody comes to me with a way that I can give something back, it would be ungrateful at this point in my life to not say yes.

I'm a great believer in not over-thinking lyrics. You might become technically better as a songwriter, but you lose what originally made your songs great.

When you start fooling around with drugs, you're hurting your creativity, you're hurting your health. Drugs are death, in one form or another. If they don't kill you, they kill your soul. And if your soul's dead, you've got nothing to offer, anyway.

Democracy in the studio is overrated. What you wind up getting is compromise on everybody's part, which means that nobody has their way, and that means nobody wins, including the fans.

In terms of merchandise, you can't force anyone to buy something.

when you reach a point where you can distinguish between the things you thought you wanted and the things you actually need, that is an epiphany.

I'm damn successful but I got here by not taking crap. I still don't take crap, so if anybody needs a champion, let it be me.

We're the McDonalds of rock. Were always there to satisfy, and a billion served.

Our audience is young and vibrant; we retain our previous following; we are three generations into it. Unlike other bands that are very demographically specific, who they appeal to and who their fans are, we're the antithesis of that. If you see your younger brother or a parent of yours or a neighbor at most rock concerts, that's not cool but with us and kids, it's a tribal gathering. Whether it's kids or neighbors - they're all part of a secret society.

I am one of the biggest Laura Nyro fans. I still listen to that stuff incessantly. Laura Nyro does not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Songwriter Hall of Fame? Absolutely.

A Kiss concert experience is like sex or anything else that's done with more that one person. It's the give and take that makes it so great. When the audience takes it to the next level, we can kick it up another notch.

If I had my way, I'd always be onstage. But I won't always be able to be onstage.

It's a really special night for our fans. It's vindication.

The fact that you can't base a coffeehouse on any other rock band is the other rock bands' problem, not mine.

You can be with somebody and still feel alone.

You're at your best when you don't know what you're doing.

I tend to fly a bit under the radar.

KISS has always been outside of the borders of what other bands can do. Not that some of these other bands wouldn't want to do it - the fact that they may snicker or look down their noses at what we do is more out of jealously than anything else.

If I write for myself, I write a song and I bring in the musicians that are best suited to play it. There's a freedom there.

The premise of Kiss has always been to not live within the confinements and boundaries other people set for themselves. We set our own limitations, and those are no limitations.

During another argument, Gene snapped at Peter: "Peter, you're an illiterate idiot who can't read or even talk correctly and never finished school." "Yeah," said Peter, "and I'm in the same band as you." To this day, that remains the smartest thing I ever heard Peter say.

Credibility is someone else's idea of what I should be doing.

Music critics are, for the most part, bitter people who are intent at dragging people down for being successful at what they want to do, which is probably music. The oddity of being a critic is: You don't get a diploma, you just decide you're a critic. If someone listens to your opinion rather than their own, it's their mistake. Any critic's top 10, any year, it's something controversial or something that will make them look hipper-than-thou. The whole critic game, we've never played.

I live in the house bad reviews built.

There's a difference between standing up and telling people what you're planning to do and standing up and going and accomplishing something.

We are still not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame but there are 3,000 Kiss products, a Kiss musical toothbrush, everything from Kiss caskets to Kiss condoms. There are no Radiohead condoms ...

Autobiographies, for the most part, to me, are like writing a love letter to yourself.

Tooting my own horn is of no interest to me ... it takes you away from real life. It's a waste, and I don't find a need to sing my own praises.

The ultimate rebellion wasn't fighting the system, it was circumventing the system and living your life fully.

The financial reward is great and I love the life I have, but all money makes possible is for you to stop worrying about money. Then you have freedom to live your life.

To go from being an unpopular, chubby little kid who was chasing girls and couldn't seem to catch them, to being chased after and making sure I ran slow enough that I did get caught, it was 180 degree turn. It was being given the keys to the candy store.

The only thing I can say is consistent in all my paintings is vivid color.

One thing I had figured out by then was that talent, like everything else, was just a starting point. What counted was what you did with it. I knew I wasn't the most talented guitar player or the best singer or the best writer, but I could do all of those things, and I had a complete vision of what it was going to take to succeed---a vision that included working, working, working.

The whole idea of rock and roll lifestyle is a cartoon. It's a caricature. And at times, it's made up of people emulating others; a few who actually live that lifestyle and many who claim to live that lifestyle.

he said, "Don't you give him too much love?" "You can never give a child too much love," I said. "You can only give them too little love. Love doesn't make a child weaker, it makes a child stronger." That was an odd one for my dad to hear. If I ever heard someone telling Evan not to cry, not to be a baby, anything like that, I made a point of telling Evan the truth that I had discovered: people who hide their emotions are weak. You find strength and peace by being open.