I'm not exactly ambitious as much as I have a very good realization of what I am and what I am capable of.

I love being a storyteller. I love telling stories.

If I'm in L.A. for longer than 20 days, I'm looking for work, because I don't do vacations.

Every summer, around late July and into August, I find myself in Europe, performing at any festival that will have me.

I have never experienced anything like walking out onto the stage of an oversold venue and, before the first note is struck, realizing that there is not going to be enough oxygen for all of us.

Every year, August lashes out in volcanic fury, rising with the din of morning traffic, its great metallic wings smashing against the ground, heating the air with ever-increasing intensity.

The scarcity of the music not only makes the music itself enjoyable but it also gives the collector a strange sense of superiority.

After I left D.C. to join Black Flag, I felt I was in a band.

I take the work seriously, just not myself in it.

I mean Black Flag happened. I was lucky. I don't think I could have put together something with one percent of that oomph on my own.

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

I don't want to fail the audience. I don't want to let them down.

I'm most comfortable on stage.

If I had to perform in a comedy club I would bomb; I would be trying too hard.

The world's a better place since I chose music.

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

I have always thought that change you can see and feel is best.

I've made some great mistakes in my life, but, you know, they were honest mistakes.

And I love the hate mail I get, the unsigned, misspelled letters I get telling me to go back to Russia or wherever.

I'm not artistic nor am I all that creative.

I guess, topic to topic, you could consider me a left-leaning person.

There's no rule that you have to like Henry Rollins the musician or the actor.

I love to go on stage and sing.

Giving a good performance, giving it all is what it's all about. I love to perform.