Henry Rollins citations

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

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

“Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.”

“I think about the meaning of pain. Pain is personal. It really belongs to the one feeling it. Probably the only thing that is your own. I like mine.”

“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, out-learn them, outlive them, and know more than they do.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Life will not break your heart. It'll crush it.”

“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.”

“My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Yes, I guess you could say I am a loner
but I feel more lonely in a crowed room with boring people than I feel on my own”

“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.”