Lars Ulrich

Lars: We've always known that there's been a need or a want for a band like us. We've fought back and broken through all the bullshit of the business, and now it's great to be able to say 'Fuck off' to the whole business, and 'We did it our way' and blah blah blah. We've always had our own way of doing things..."

Lars: Metallica is the only band I've ever been in. I'm not sure that when it ends in five, ten years, I'm going to put an ad in the paper saying 'Stupid drummer looking for stupid people to play music with.' Metallica is it and I think when that ceases, that's it.

(Talking about Cliff) Lars: Today we think about him a lot and talk about him, even joke about him. I often think, now much more than ever, how much of a character and personality Cliff actually was. He was just one in five billion people on this earth, and we will never, ever, even be tempted to come up with anyone like him.

Lars: To me the most boring thing in the world is safe, mainstream heavy metal...I'd rather listen to Madonna.

Lars: One of my few shortcomings is that I can't predict the future.

Lars: They paint fucking white lines in the middle of the road and the cops tell you you can't drive there, but they don't do anything to prevent you like puting nails in the road.

Lars: Cliff was so completely honest to himself and the people around him. He hated all this being-put-on-a-pedestal bullshit. (About Cliff Burton)

Lars: I know Cliff, more than anyone else in the band, would have been the first guy to give us a kick in the ass, and wouldn't want us to sit around. It's what he would have wanted us to do.

Lars: We always miss Cliff, but he is kind of on the record …And Justice For All. The song "To Live Is to Die" is really based on a number of riffs that Cliff wrote a couple of years ago. It's kind of cool to have something written by Cliff on the new album.

Lars: I wasn't too angry in the beginning. I was obviously grieving, but the anger started setting in when I realized that it's not new that people in rock-n-roll die, but usually it's self-inflicted in terms of excessive drink or drug abuse. He had nothing to do with it. It's so useless. Completely useless.

Lars: I dont mind people downloading the songs... just not until the albums actually out.