There are records that, in my opinion, only reach their full potential when the listener is disoriented.

When someone asks you, 'What's punk?' my reply is, 'If you have to ask, you're never going to know.'

Maybe I'm ego-tripping, but I don't find myself a particularly horrible person, so I don't think I need to hold back anything I think or feel.

Each year, every city in the world that can should have a multiday festival. More people meeting each other, digging new types of music, new foods, new ideas. You want to stop having so many wars? This could be a step in the right direction.

I don't mean to be arrogant and I really appreciate my fans but talking about what I am doing is not something I'm good at. I do what I do and that's it. I want to get back to my work and do more of it instead of talking about it.

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

I have been listening to the Stooges' self-titled first album for well over half my life, and it remains one of the most exciting and essential records I have ever had the good fortune to come into contact with.

Most Americans are very cool people.

There's something about being under-rested and knowing that the situation is going to remain that way for quite some time that makes things more meaningful.

I need to do things on my own, need to be left alone.

Every single record I have is a fossil.

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

I've always seen it as the role of an artist to drag his inside out, give the audience all you've got. Writers, actors, singers, all good artists do the same. It isn't supposed to be easy.

The arts in America exist in spite of America, not because of America.

Humans are pretty crafty but will fold quickly in severe cold.

Football is at least as 'gay' as rugby, Greco-Roman wrestling and the film '300.'

What does New York sound like? For me, the Charlie Parker at the Royal Roost recordings on the Savoy label are the total embodiment of the New York music experience.

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

I think it is incumbent on anyone who can to lift human dignity to the highest possible levels, maintaining one's own and helping to raise that of others.

I always start tours with a great deal of anticipation.

I have not the smarts or patience for political office.

I have always identified with Joan Didion's depiction of Los Angeles and Southern California, ever since reading 'Play It As It Lays,' 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' and 'The White Album.'

In my bright, utopian future world, they will hand out college educations like cups of water at the end of the L.A. Marathon.

There's always going to be a need for activism; there's always going to be a need for you and me doing the right thing, being very Lincoln-sonian in looking out for each other.