"I'd rather be a creature of the night than an old dude."

"It is often my nature to be abstract, hidden in plain sight, or nowhere at all."

"People have evolved into something selfish, greedy and intolerant. People are unaccepting, because of religion, race, gender, sexual orientation... I've seen it in punk clubs, and I've seen it in the world."

"The clearest actions come from truth, not obligation."

"You should love yourself."

"Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary."

"I feel like my mission is to be honest with myself. My mission is to share my truth - share, not give. I think that's what an artist is supposed to do: I think they share."

"I'm not psycho... I just like psychotic things."

"I want to be a vampire. They're the coolest monsters."

"Cigarettes and coffee: an alcoholic's best friend!"

"Life is very, very short, and you can choose to live it how you want. You can choose to dumb yourself down and not express yourself just so you can fit in, just so people won't dislike you."

"Suicide is a serious thing. And if you know anyone who is suicidal, you need to get them help. No one should be in pain. Everyone should love themselves."

"I notice a lot of people think they can solve their problems with antidepressants. That, I noticed, being like a bigger issue, like, it really strips people of who they are. Like, all your quirks and all your problems, even your depressions and your failures, that's what makes you, you. And there's a lot of drugs out there that will take that away from you."

"If you chase the art, you really can't fail because you'll always be able to look at yourself in the mirror. And that's not about making angry decisions, either, it's about always doing the right thing for you, your fans and your art."

"Remember the first time you went to a show and saw your favorite band. You wore their shirt, and sang every word. You didn't know anything about scene politics, haircuts, or what was cool. All you knew was that this music made you feel different from anyone you shared a locker with. Someone finally understood you. This is what music is about."

"I had a couple of really cool friends when I was a kid, and we'd find cool music and movies and show them to each other. My friend Dennis had a copy of 'A Clockwork Orange' and he'd already seen it once, and he was like, 'We need to watch this.' I was sleeping over his house - and I think we were literally 15 - and we watched it."

"Your connection to other people keeps you human, and that connection, staying human - that's what you have against control. It's like if somebody is being controlled by their job, the connection is to their family. And if they stay connected to those people, the job will never really have control over them."

"The more people that learn about you, even if you're an underdog, then you can come under fire a lot and the more attention you get and the more threatening or dangerous you appear to people. And the more people try to knock you down."

"You can't be two people in your brain, one rock dude and a dad - there's something in the middle of them, and that's really what you are and that's going to make you the best dad - not when you try to be one or the other."

"My favourite two festivals have always been the Big Day Out and Summersonic in Japan. The Big Day Out is a little more fun because it lasts longer. It's like an abbreviated version of the Warped tour because you get to play with the same people every day, which is really fun."

"'Watchmen' is a politically charged story, and it explores exactly what a hero is, how the world would treat them and how they would react. It was the first time I read a superhero story that explored that situation. These are very real people with very real problems."

"The thing about 'Watchmen' that people should know is that when it came out there was absolutely nothing like it. Up until then, comics were about the same thing: a guy in tights fighting another guy in tights and saving the girl - that was it."

"To all those whove tried to belong, and just didnt fit inyou are loved. To all those whove tried to stand out and be heardyoure admired. To all those whove tried to be themselves, only to be shut downyou are supported. To all those whove tried to kill themselves because lifes unfairyoure NOT alone. Love your friends, love your enemies, because in the end, theyll all be kissing your ass when you make it."

"I do enjoy manga but would not consider myself a 'super-fan,' only really connecting with certain works such as 'Lone Wolf and Cub,' or 'Tekkon Kinkreet,' the more breakthrough works, and 'Akira,' to me, is the daddy of them all."

"Hey, girls, you're beautiful. Don't look at those stupid magazines with sticklike models. Eat healthy and exercise. That's all. Don't let anyone tell you you're not good enough. You're good enough, you are too good. Love your family with all your heart and listen to it. You are gorgeous, whether you're a size 4 or 14. It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, as long as you're a good person, as long as you respect others. I know it's been told hundreds of times before, but it's true. Hey, girls, you are beautiful."

"You're going to come across a lot of shitty band, and a lot of shitty people. And if anyone of those people call you names beacause of what you look like or they don't accept you for who you are, I want you to look right at that motherf*****, stick up your middle finger, and scream F*** YOU!"

"I thought if we made an album that tried to change the world, or give it hope, it would really happen. But all people found was death and destruction and misery and self-hate. I learned that the world doesn't want to be saved, and it will f**king punch you in the face if you try."

"I think normally people think that they're afraid to die but I actually think people are more afraid to live. People are more afraid to make the choices that they want because they're very hard decisions to make in order to be happy. I think a lot of people are really afraid of that. It's easy to be in a band because you have a lot of things to hide behind so that's really not always living...that doesn't always constitute as living life the way you want. But at times you have to make decisions that sometimes hurt others in order to live."

"Make your life your art. It doesn't have to be that you're an artist. I know I talk about art a lot, but I mean a very broad thing with that. You could be a veterinarian, that's your art. Find your art; find your thing you love."

"The difference we wanna make is number one to let these kids know that they’re not alone, that they’re actually not that messed up and that they can do whatever they want; they can express themselves however they want, without being persecuted or called a faggot or some kind of racist thing. You know, really just to get people to get over their stuff so they can live."

"No matter how much you try and make your surroundings suitable for creativity, if the enviornment inside of you isn't creatively healthy then you won't be able to make the art you want. Being in tune with yourself and your inner truth, being at peace in there, is the best way to nurture your creativity. Then you can even make a bad enviornment a good one."

"I think that there are many ways in which people look for heroes, messiahs, things like that in society. I think some people are looking for something that maybe they don't possess. To me, ultimately, you are looking for someone who understands you, or at least you think understands you. It all comes down to understanding for who we look to as heroes."

"I am in the jungle and I am too fast for you. You have teeth and stripes and things that tear. But I am much too fast… You want my flesh, but you don’t know where the jungle is… Only I know where the jungle is… Only I know… I am a gazelle. I am a gazelle and the jungle is my home."

"Making a record is a lot like surgery without an anesthetic. You first have to cut yourself up the middle. Then you have to rip out every single organ, every single part and lay them on a table. You then need to examine the parts, and the reality of the situation hits you. Then you pop it all back in, sew yourself shut and perform."

"I think spirituality, even if there's no God, even if there's nothing - I consider myself relatively spiritual. I believe in a God. I don't know what it's like, but I do believe in it. It's the only thing that makes any sense. Maybe I'm just looking for order in the chaos. Though, I do believe in Evolution and I do believe in science."

"I went to school in drag, in art school and my day was completely different because everybody thought I was a chick. You should see me as a chick. So I went as a girl, as like an experiment and it worked really well and everyone was really nice to me but I couldn't talk obviously...you know train conductors were really cool to me on my commute...HA! I looked hot as a chick!"

"It's okay to be messed up, because there are five other dudes who are just as messed up as you."

"I hollowed out, stopped listening to music, never picked up a pencil, started slipping into old habits. All of the vibrancy I used to see became de-saturated. Lost Slowly, once I had done enough damage to myself, I began to climb out of the hole. Clean. When I made it out, the only thing left inside was the voice, and for the second time in my life, I no longer ignored it - because it was my own."

"Since I started as a comic person then became a musician to me it was interesting because I have this really great, interesting fanbase that's really smart and energetic and uh how could I steer them towards a medium that shaped who I was? You know, steer them toward comics. That was really the goal, to bring a lot of readers cuz they were reading a lot of comics but most of them hadn't been reading American comics, they'd be reading manga sitting on the floor of a Barnes and Noble."