Henry Rollins

Rollins: Want a good body? Work at it. Want to be a success? Work at it. Want to be truly exceptional? Be a touch insane... You need a little bit of insanity to do great things.

Rollins: I don't want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride.

Rollins: When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive.

Rollins: And he busts all the French he knows. Entrepreneurs. Courageous...Space...Entrepreneurs. Presumably, these astronauts are actually men who buy and sell quantities of the heavens.

Rollins: When life hands you a lemon, say "Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?"

Rollins: It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.

Rollins: Nothing Brings People together more than mutual hatred.

Rollins: Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your a** [butt] off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts.

Rollins: Go without a coat when it's cold; find out what cold is. Go hungry; keep your existence lean. Wear away the fat, get down to the lean tissue and see what it's all about. The only time you define your character is when you go without. In times of hardship, you find out what you're made of and what you're capable of. If you're never tested, you'll never define your character.

Rollins: If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you.

Rollins: You always know the mark of a coward. A coward hides behind freedom. A brave person stands in front of freedom and defends it for others.

Rollins: If I was gay, there would be no closet, you would never see the closet I came out of. Why? I would have burned it for kindling by the time I was 12. Because I know with all certainty in my mind, there is nothing wrong with being gay, and you know it.

Rollins: Basically, men are afraid of women and can't handle the fact that they came out of the same thing they spend the rest of their lives trying to get back into.

Rollins: Whenever I get dumped, I nail the door shut so that no one can come inside, get a towel and clip it around my neck so it's like a Superman cape, take off my shoes so I can slide across the room, and...get a fake mic, like a celery stick or a pen, and I play any record that features the vocalist Ronnie James Dio. And you can just pretend you're Dio, because on every album he does, he has minimum one, usually three, *EVIL WOMAN LOOK OUT!*- songs. And if you wanna point like Dio, it's a three-finger point. (heavy metal voice) The exit is that way. Evil LURKS! Evil lurks in twilight! Dances in the DARK! Evil woman! Just WALK AWAY!

Rollins: It is no surprise to me that hardly anyone tells the truth about how they feel. The smart ones keep themselves to themselves for good reason. Why would you want to tell anyone anything that's dear to you? Even when you like them and want nothing more than to be closer than close to them? It's so painful to be next to someone you feel strongly about and know you can't say the things you want to.

(Rollins on acting) Rollins: One should be gainfully employed all the time. One should work vigorously or at least I should and in my mind, I'm always the waiter looking for work so this is, for me, my waiter job.

Rollins: You don't want to exclude people, that's not good. So you just bring them in. And that's just good story telling. If they speak English, which is the only language I've got at my disposal at this point, you don't talk down to them, nobody's stupid. You have to understand that English is probably not their first language and you should address that.

Rollins: When I'm in a movie, I want to get it done and do it right but I'm not going to tell you that I'm an actor and I'm not going to pull some attitude except "How well can I do this for you? And However many times you want me to do it, I'm good to do that."

Rollins: I just kind of do whatever role comes to me. I take the job seriously, I don't take myself seriously.

Rollins: I've averaged over 100 shows a year for 25 years. I'm not exactly proud of that, like I wear it on a badge, but I sure do like what I do.

Rollins: If you hate your parents, the man, or the establishment, don't show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really want to rebel against your parents: outlearn them, outlive them, and know more than they do.

Rollins: When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive.

Rollins: The ones who don't do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down.