Henry Rollins Quotes

I am not immune to the lure of a signed record, flier or set list. The fact that your music heroes potentially had, in their own hands, the record you now have in yours is kind of cool. When the musician has departed, it can give the thing a unique power. ~ Henry Rollins

I enjoy helping. I like doing benefits and things like that, but don't feel the need to be thanked or even meet the people I am doing the benefit for. ~ Henry Rollins

I come from a minimum wage working world, as we all did for at least some part of our lives, and that is never out of my rearview. I've never forgotten how much your feet hurt after you've stood on them for like 12 hours. And how the drudgery of a job you hate craps on your entire life; how you treat other people, how you treat yourself, and it really was getting to me. ~ Henry Rollins

I think that I'm running from something I heard on the radio That everybody's working for the weekend When does the weekend start? What comes at the end of the week? The end? Picture a tired dog chasing its tail ~ Henry Rollins

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

I live my life through the prism of capitalism and physiological limits and eventualities. ~ Henry Rollins

When she comes
She pulls you close
She breathes in short bursts
Her eyes close
Her head tilts back
Her mouth opens slightly
Her thighs turn to steel, and then melt
She is perfect
And you feel like you are everything. ~ Henry Rollins

I'm not harmful, just introspective. You can probably think I'm weird, but it's not harmful weird. ~ Henry Rollins

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

I always start tours with a great deal of anticipation. ~ Henry Rollins

I have not the smarts or patience for political office. ~ Henry Rollins

If i was a woman these days, i'd be killing motherfuckers. my handgun would never cool and my hands would be covered in testicular blood. i would have a horrible reputation with a lot of men because i would be calling them on their weak bullshit left and right. ~ Henry Rollins

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

I've never heard Daft Punk; I've never heard a track of theirs in my life. They're the two guys with motorcycle helmets on? ~ Henry Rollins

For me, jazz will always be the soundtrack of the civil rights movement. ~ Henry Rollins

All my big heroes are literary, writers. ~ Henry Rollins

I want to learn more about the world. It makes me want to get up and go. ~ Henry Rollins

I'm just shallow and self-interested, and don't get out much because I'm afraid of real commitments. ~ Henry Rollins

Misery, depression, elation all mine, refine confinement all my design. ~ Henry Rollins

I'll be here tomorrow If I can make it through today. ~ Henry Rollins

When you see the Escalades and the Hummers driving down the street, at least in Los Angeles, this dry, flat desert with shopping malls, when you see someone driving one of those through this you're like, 'You are definitely part of the problem.' ~ Henry Rollins

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

Whenever I write lyrics, in the back of my mind I always see a guy driving to work, driving to a really bad job, one of those horrible institutions, or one of those low squat buildings in Los Angeles. I write with that person in my mind. ~ Henry Rollins

Do it or don't. It's amazing how many things in life are that easy. ~ Henry Rollins

Once you say something, it stays said. I apologized to anyone who may have been hurt by what I said, and I really meant it. I am absolutely not interested in hurting anyone, or being mean or insensitive. ~ Henry Rollins

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

But I have a good life. I enjoy what I do. I am married to work. ~ Henry Rollins

I got my heart broken. My spirit got shattered and mutilated. I will not be coming back from this. I don't want to. ~ Henry Rollins

We all learn lessons in life. Some stick, some don't. I have always learned more from rejection and failure than from acceptance and success. ~ Henry Rollins

You can pass all the gun legislation you want. None of it will make me feel any more or less safe than I do right at this moment. ~ Henry Rollins

The prison-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex are here with us and are multi-billion dollar enterprises. We can make more money off the kid in Compton if he's a criminal instead of a scholar. It's business. ~ Henry Rollins

Don't hide behind the Constitution or the Bible. If you're against gay marriage, just be honest, put a scarlet 'H' on your shirt, and say, 'I am a homophobe! ~ Henry Rollins

Most poets are elitist dregs more concerned with proving their skill with a dictionary than communicating ideas with impact. ~ Henry Rollins

I think more airtime should be given to Donald Trump and Orly Taitz. They should run for office together. They should open for Charlie Sheen. ~ Henry Rollins

I get tired of talking when I want to be silent. ~ Henry Rollins

At some point they show their true colors
After the break up
After the trial
After the contract is signed and broken
Their true colors stink
These days
I find it hard to get along with them
I want to push them until the colors come out
And sometimes I hate them so much, I push and see
I do the same to the ones I like
The ones I don't care about
I smile at real nice ~ Henry Rollins

When was the last time you wanted to say it all to the right person To have it all come out right, to surprise yourself at how together you could be. When was the last time you ever met someone who made you want to give it all to them I mean give yourself to them. Where you couldn't express yourself enough - like you wanted to cut off one of your arms to be understood. That's it - you would cut your head off to have someone understand you. You know how pointless that one is. You know how many times you've smashed yourself to bits on the rocks. ~ Henry Rollins

It's hard to judge literary merit. ~ Henry Rollins

All by yourself, unable to express the pain of your distress with your deeper inside. You alienate yourself and everybody else. ~ Henry Rollins

Technically speaking, there is no music whatsoever on a CD. Lots of information, but no music. ~ Henry Rollins

There's the real world, with all its annoying facts and rules. In the real world, there are things that are true and things that aren't. Mostly the real world s-s-s-suh-sucks. But everyone also lives in the world inside their own head. An inscape, a world of thought. In a world made of thought - in an inscape - every idea is a fact. Emotions are as real as gravity. Dreams are as powerful as history. Creative people, like writers, and Henry Rollins, spend a lot of their time hanging out in their thoughtworld. S-s-strong creatives, though, can use a knife to cut the stitches between the two worlds, can bring them together. Your bike. My tiles. Those are our knives. She ~ Joe Hill

I've never killed anybody ... but I've definitely thought about it. ~ Henry Rollins

I will take the acting work when I can get it. I am not really an actor, that's always apparent but it's work and I'll take it and am always glad for it. ~ Henry Rollins

Pride is not a word or sentiment I can ascribe to anything I have done or do. As far as regret, it is a luxury I can not afford. Anything I did, that was bad or wrong or regretful, I stand accused, I am guilty and I'm ready to serve my time. ~ Henry Rollins

We Americans are hard on almost everything. We are hard on our vehicles, our marriages and our heroes. Mostly, however, we are hard on ourselves. ~ Henry Rollins

I like the sound of my voice, doesn't mean it's any good but I like it. The joke is that "all good singers like the sound of their own voice" so we'll go with that. ~ Henry Rollins

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn't ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you're not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control. ~ Henry Rollins

Jazz music is as American as it gets, and so is the U.S. Postal Service. A Miles Davis stamp is a perfect marriage of two great American institutions. ~ Henry Rollins

Here in this moment we are beautiful, nocturnal creatures and our thoughts and words are jewels guarded by the moon. ~ Henry Rollins

We Californians can watch the Weather Channel for images of winter's brutality unleashed upon our fellow Americans and thank our lucky stars we don't have to contend with it. ~ Henry Rollins

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

I am on until I am dead, like a light bulb. ~ Henry Rollins

A rose trapped inside a fist. ~ Henry Rollins

It's always been impressive to me when someone can really do what they want onstage. The audience has confidence in the performer and the performer has confidence in the crowd. ~ Henry Rollins

All of the things that the bible warns you of being: jealous, covetous, murderous, selfish, etc., that's kind of how humans are. ~ Henry Rollins

Americans have been dumbed down to the point where more people watching 'American Idol' than listen to the state of the union address. And that's too bad. I'm not trying to take any bread out of the mouth of Simon Cowell, but if the president is speaking to the people of the United States, and people are going to watch 'American Idol,' that's sad. ~ Henry Rollins

America has 2.2 million of it's citizens incarcerated. It's a statistic we should be ashamed of ... ~ Henry Rollins

I love to go on stage and sing. ~ Henry Rollins

While they flail about, you will remain calm in the knowledge that you possess strength from within. ~ Henry Rollins

We should treat each other better. Why in the hell would you still have racism? This ancient, moronic hatred? Why does our foreign policy have to always involve so much death and so much death of innocent people as a matter of course, to the point to where no one bothers to say anything. I guess a lot of people don't want to move forward. It's frustrating at times. ~ Henry Rollins

Quite often governments are one way and the people are another. ~ Henry Rollins

She can break your fall Or let you fall and break And every time you jump You just know she's going to catch you ~ Henry Rollins

I don't want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride. All you do is get to breathe and copulate and finally die. I don't want to go with the smooth skin and the calm brow. I hope I end up a blithering idiot cursing the sun - hallucinating, screaming, giving obscene and inane lectures on street corners and public parks. People will walk by and say, "Look at that drooling idiot. What a basket case." I will turn and say to them, "It is you who are the basket case. For every moment you hated your job, cursed your wife and sold yourself to a dream that you didn't even conceive. For the times your soul screamed yes and you said no. For all of that. For your self-torture, I see the glowing eyes of the sun! The air talks to me! I am at all times!" And maybe, the passers by will drop a coin into my cup. ~ Henry Rollins

Change is hard, but change is good. ~ Henry Rollins

I am too far gone to be rehabilitated. ~ Henry Rollins

All good writers inspire me as I have never thought I was any good. As far as a writer who made me think I could do it, it was Henry Miller. Not because I thought he was so simple that I reckoned I could pull it off as well, but it was his freedom and guts that really moved me to want to write all the time. ~ Henry Rollins

He looked at her Something Turned cancerous He was in love. ~ Henry Rollins

Respect is not a one way street ~ Henry Rollins

I still have dreams about CBGB's. I still miss the place. ~ Henry Rollins

Collecting records is, for many, beyond a hobby. ~ Henry Rollins

For myself, I can't understand a life without a job. I don't know what I would do without employment. Retirement is out of the question for me. ~ Henry Rollins

What I'm saying is America has a job deficit because hundreds of thousands of jobs went elsewhere. Not because [Barack] Obama raised your taxes. He, in fact, lowered them. They are lower. ~ Henry Rollins

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

Everything you do makes my body scream with loneliness. ~ Henry Rollins

I think it's important to have some documentation of the past. ~ Henry Rollins

When I'm off the road, and I can really control my diet down to the calorie, I juice seven days a week. Every afternoon, whatever I have at hand, beets, carrots, ginger, whatever. I juice, literally, every single day. And on the road, I try to find fresh juice wherever I can. ~ Henry Rollins

There is no place in the world like Australia. Not even its beautiful neighbor New Zealand. ~ Henry Rollins

As a teen, I heard the second Velvet Underground album, 'White Light/White Heat,' and it was too much for my limited scope of appreciation. It was intense, but I didn't get it. ~ Henry Rollins

August brings into sharp focus and a furious boil everything I've been listening to in the late spring and summer. ~ Henry Rollins

The only thing about sanctions is that, like a lot of drone strikes, there are countless unintended victims. Cutting off aid to Uganda only increases the pain there. ~ Henry Rollins

Too sick and freaked out not to want a bullet for every passer by, too sick and freaked out to breathe, too sick and freaked out to care, too sick and freaked out to think of anything but the annihilation of my mind and denial of my life. So sick and freaked out that I think everyone is my friend. ~ Henry Rollins

Florida is a crazy place, and I have played some of the wildest shows of my life here. ~ Henry Rollins

Don't think about it. Do it. Don't talk about it. Do it. ~ Henry Rollins

'Fox News' will one day come to an end. Led Zeppelin will not. It's as simple as that. ~ Henry Rollins

I'm not artistic nor am I all that creative. ~ Henry Rollins

Here you can be a billionaire, like Mark Zuckerberg rich, but you are going to die and you are here for a while and ultimately all of your stuff is kind of like a rental. ~ Henry Rollins

More than 30 years ago, in Washington, D.C., I secured a copy of a single by a Los Angeles band called The Bags. The two-song 7-inch, released on Dangerhouse, had a girl on the cover who looked right at you with huge eyes. The songs, 'Survive' and 'Babylonian Gorgon,' were great and made many of my mix tapes. ~ Henry Rollins

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

we get to Preston and find that it's depressing ~ Henry Rollins

It's difficult for me to be around anyone for longer than an hour. Love, death, elation, sorrow, I just don't care all that much about any of it. I am at this point, more of an observer/journalist. ~ Henry Rollins

Miles Davis would have this lineup of all these amazing musicians and one day would just say, 'We're done.' After tons of great records and tickets sold, he said, 'Now I'm going to grow my hair out and play my horn through a wah-wah pedal.' Rather than play it safe, he went on. ~ Henry Rollins

I am the assasin of my dreams. ~ Henry Rollins

I simply cannot understand how any parent could kill themselves, ~ Henry Rollins

If I was gay, there would be no closet. You would never see the closet I came out of. Why? Because I'd have burned it for kindling by the time I was twelve ... If I was gay, at this stage of the game?age 37, aging alternative icon?I'd be taking out ads. ~ Henry Rollins

When I read that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had disappeared - a state-of-the-art Boeing 777, said to be an incredibly safe way to travel - I waited patiently for the chance to learn what happened. ~ Henry Rollins

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. ~ Henry Rollins

I think politicians get hamstrung by the nature of politics when the private sector can really do great things. ~ Henry Rollins

One person's disaster is another person's talking point. ~ Henry Rollins

Love is self deception. I am a living creature. Hate is only self love. I am a double feature. ~ Henry Rollins

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