I want to cultivate my own sound in my own atmosphere, where the clock is not running.

There's a lot of shiny, pretty objects out there that when you actually touch them, they just fall apart. And it's like, you need to be authentic, you need to be yourself.

I was brought up by four older sisters, so there's trouble right there. We are Catholic, very religious, and that sort of colors my world and my music.

If you're really gonna live, you have to be vulnerable.

The scary part of alcoholism and addiction and that is until a person is ready to stop, they're not gonna, and there's nothing anyone can do. There's nothing anyone can say or do. And the unfortunate part is sometimes people die because of that.

If you go back and listen to the album 'Name' was on, there were a lot of garage songs on it.

So what if America loses its empire? We never should have had one in the first place.

I refuse to listen to Rush Limbaugh. I listen to a lot of conservative radio when I drive around in my car. I refuse to listen to him because he's just ridiculous, just a clown. I love Rachel Maddow obviously.

Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm in control but that I'm going along for the ride. And I'm a lousy passenger; I love to drive.

We were so heavily influenced by The Replacements and by a lot of hard core bands like Bad Brains, not that we sounded like them but we were trying to play as hard and fast as we could.

Our society's sort of turning into a two-class system, where... most of the wealth and privileges are being concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer people. And there's the rest of us... that have to go out and work and struggle and live and die and try to find some happiness and contentment and security.

It's really weird how the rock world is quickly becoming like the jazz world. How if you do OK, or get a tiny bit of success, that's considered a sellout, whether you did anything different or not.

I never underestimate luck and working hard.

I went to a vocational high school, which is where they basically train you to go out and dig ditches. You gotta learn a trade. Well, why do you gotta learn a trade? Because you're not smart enough to go to college. That was the underlying gist of it.

I have a very powerful form of alcoholism. I finally gave up and accepted the fact that if I even smell too much booze, I'm going to start drinking again. That's just how I am.

I have this dreadful image of me driving down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, with the windows rolled down, and our song comes on... and I'm sitting there listening to it and some guy pulls up next to me and thinks, 'Hey, it's that guy from the Goo Goo Dolls... he's listening to his own music. What a jerk!'

One of the things about live music that's so incredibly important and can't be replaced and automated is the common focus of a room full of people having that human contact and being immersed in the sensory overload of a rock concert.

There's a certain vibe in my hometown; Buffalo is a city that has no illusions.

There's nothing I hate more than canceling shows.

After cancer, I ain't scared of nothing.

My fans have always taken care of me.

I think of the Bible as an unauthorized biography.

I still enjoy the heck out of getting up there to play shows every night.

Man, I hated school. I'd stare at the buttons on the teacher's shirt the whole class.