Henry Rollins Quotes

“It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.”

“What goes best with a cup of coffee? Another cup.”

“I'll never forget how the depression and loneliness felt good and bad at the same time. Still does.”

“I'm not close to people, I am close to myself. I spend a lot of time inside.”

“You have to get away from them. You have to get as far away as you can otherwise they'll kill you with their lives. They don't know what they do. They are careless with themselves and they take too much for granted. They make their shortcomings your problem. The only way to keep your head above it and heal your wounds is to crawl away.”

“You don't make me feel like you used to.
That's why I'm leaving
That's why people leave each other
They come to their senses and get selfish again.”

“It's hard to get along with people. As much as you try to like them and accept them as individuals, it becomes difficult because they keep getting out of line and wasting your time.”

“Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn't worth the time and effort.”

“I have heard people say that they felt closer to their parents after they have died. Maybe if I treat people as if they were dead, I could get along with them better”

“Somewhere, someone isn’t impressed by your looks. Not all men jump through the hoops of your fire. You’re unbelievably boring to more people than you’ll ever know.”

“My feelings for you shame me into silence.”

“perfection. I have been waiting all my life to be with you. My heart slams against my ribs when I think of the slaughtered nights I spent all over the world waiting to feel your touch.”

“Keep walking. Hot night right now, right here. All you have is what you are. All you want is much too much. All you get is so much less. All you feel is nothing. All you see is darkness. All you know is senseless and all you can do about it is ride.”

“The times I have tried to get close to someone resulted in me feeling threatened and weak.”

“It hurts to let go. Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold on to something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted.”

“Girls aren't beautiful, they're pretty. Beautiful is too heavy a word to assign to a girl. Women are beautiful because their faces show that they know they have lost something and picked up something else.”

“I definitely learned a lesson this time. I know that I can be broken. I am not as tough as I thought. I see it now. At this point, it's the only thing good that came out of all of this. I know myself better now and know what I have to do.”

“Listen to the stage manager and get on stage when they tell you to. No one has time for the rock star act. None of the techs backstage care if you're David Bowie or the milkman. When you act like a jerk, they are completely unimpressed with the infantile display that you might think comes with your dubious status. They were there hours before you building the stage, and they will be there hours after you leave tearing it down. They should get your salary, and you should get theirs.”

“Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.”

“My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.”

“Do it or don't. It's amazing how many things in life are that easy.”

“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.”

“Love heals scars love left”

“Knowledge without Mileage is bullshit to me.”

“I get tired of talking when I want to be silent.”

“I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.”

“Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated.”

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

“Respect is not a one way street”

“Nothing brings people together more than mutual hatred.”

“Best not to mix the past with the present. The present paints the past with gold. The past paints the present with lead.”

“When she comes
She pulls you close
She breathes in short bursts
Her eyes close
Her head tilts back
Her mouth opens slightly
Her thighs turn to steel, and then melt
She is perfect
And you feel like you are everything.”

“I could fall in love with a cruel desert that kills without passion, a canyon full of scorpions, one thousand blinding arctic storms, a century sealed in a cave, a river of molten salt flowing down my throat. But never with you.”

“I will do my best to dodge tonight's depression
Hide in sleep
Damage myself in dreams
Wake up older, slightly more used.”

“My love is a thousand French poets puking black blood on your Cure CD collection.”

“I know you’ll never love me but maybe you’ll stay for awhile.”

“If there was a god, he wouldn't let a guy walk right up and shoot you in the face now would he? That's right, now you get the picture. Truth burns doesn't it?”

“Keep me preoccupied
Keep me busy, busy, busy
So I won't have to think
I don't want to think
Because it only brings me pain
I just keep running away from
My problems
Keep me busy
Give me a million things to do
So I can keep running away from myself.”

“Don't push me
I've got a corner at my back
I've nowhere to go except over you.”

“A rose trapped inside a fist.”

“How memories lie to us. How time coats the ordinary with gold. How it breaks the heart to go back and attempt to re-live them. How crushed we are when we discover that the gold was merely gold-plating thinly coated over lead, chalk and peeling paint.”

“I'm so burned out, the only person I can stand is myself.
I'm the only one I would put through this.
Wheels and wings,
The ride is everything.
I'm all I've got.
I'm all I can take.
Another day has destroyed a part of me.
So far so good.”

“I want you bad like a natural disaster. You are all I see. You are the only one I want to know.”

“Don't hide behind the Constitution or the Bible. If you're against gay marriage, just be honest, put a scarlet 'H' on your shirt, and say, 'I am a homophobe!”

“I’m packed with broken glass and memories and it all hurts.”

“I am well protected
Too locked up
Inside myself
To get free”

“I would like to be able to gently drift in and out of existence when I wanted to.”

“You can find me in the frozen mood section.”

“Anyone who wants to help me doesn't. Anyone who wants to kill me might. Anyone who wants to love me better not.”

“I got my heart broken. My spirit got shattered and mutilated. I will not be coming back from this. I don’t want to.”

“I'll be here tomorrow
If I can make it through today.”

“Books are cool, but knowledge without mileage doesn't mean anything to me.”

“The only difference between me and others is that they think they can change something with cute little poems, nice cards or embracing trees and being nice to little lapdogs.”

“You can still function as a living ruin.”

“I just want to be able to stand up straight for a little while before I get cut down.”

“There’s got to be someone for me. It’s not too much to ask. Just someone to be with. Someone to love. Someone to give everything to. Someone.”

“When you title yourself, you immediately lend yourself to all kinds of pretension”

“Is it a shame that I can’t accept love? Am I too burned out to move towards what will keep me alive or too smart to get pulled into someone else’s world?”

“You are the untold story. You are the impassioned truth wanting to scream its existence, to be forever trapped by a strong hand clapped firmly over the mouth of my soul.”

“I think of the thrill of an intelligent woman talking just to me.”

“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.”

“People are best on records and books because you can turn them off or put them back on the shelf.”

“Always knowing you're going to die
And until then knowing you've got to live.”

“Everything you do makes my body scream with loneliness.”

“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.”

“Life forgets me but will not let me forget
Holds me down and tells me that I'm free.”