“I've had close friends who were on the verge of having nervous breakdowns or having one, and would walk into a room and be together. I think everyone struggles. And it's hard to be critical. I'm not somebody else, I'm not in anyone else's skin; I don't know what they are thinking or what they are going through or why they do what they do. I know what it feels like to be suicidal, and I know what it feels like to be hopeless. There is some point where I learnt enough about myself to know that I don't have the tolerance to create other hurdles as well. If I would have ever started taking drugs when I was younger, I would never have lived. I would have gone out quick. I don't have the tolerance to live in that emotional and physical pain and not have anything positive or good around me. I think that as far as the life that I have, I couldn't imagine it being any better. And even with that I still get down-spirited a lot, so… (laughs). If I look at it that way, I wouldn't want to make it any worse.”
Interview with Metal Hammer, October 1996 http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/articles/hammer_10-96.shtml,
On depression and suicide
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Chris Cornell 71
American singer-songwriter, musician 1964–2017Related quotes

"Doing What I Know" (song)
Song lyrics
Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Doing What I Know" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlkC9AFrSNU (song on YouTube)

I know damn well what we did. But I ain't gonna start crying about it now, all right?
Strummer on Man, God, Law and the Clash (31 January 1988)

“I don't know what I feel or what I want to feel. I don't know what to think or what I am.”
Source: The Book of Disquiet

Responding to a press conference question as to whether he was a "card-carrying" member of the Black Muslims, as quoted in The New York Times (27 February 1964) http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4091EF7355D17738DDDAE0A94DA405B848AF1D3; also in Sports Illustrated (9 March 1964).
Context: I believe in Allah and in peace. I don't try to move into white neighborhoods. I don't want to marry a white woman. I was baptized when I was twelve, but I didn't know what I was doing. I'm not a Christian anymore. I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be... I'm free to be what I want.

Howard Stern on Piers Morgan Tonight, CNN (January 18, 2011)

Regarding Paige's battle with cancer; as quoted in "Elaine's close curtain call" by Rebecca Hardy in The Daily Mail (8 May 2004)

Strummer on Man, God, Law and the Clash (31 January 1988)