I think sometimes my controlling instincts came out of a fear of other people.
I don't like the royal family, I don't like the establishment, I don't like the civil service.
Everyone gets frustrated and aggressive, and I'd sooner take my aggression out on a guitar than on a person.
I'm still a mod, I'll always be a mod, you can bury me a mod.
No man should have cowboys boots in his wardrobe. That's fair enough, isn't it? Unless you're a cowboy, of course.
I think you have to satisfy yourself first and foremost. There have been records I've been really, really pleased with that haven't connected with people. But I felt good about them. If you're making music, you must want to turn other people on to it, whether you're number one in the charts or number 60. I don't know, that's a commercial thing, but just the fact that other people like you. . . there's no point in making music, otherwise. Otherwise you might as well make it in your bedroom and leave it there.
An artist or writer always has to move forward. All the time you're trying to improve yourself, or at least look at ways to improve things or make things better. I'm not really one to harp on previous records. I'm always looking forward to what I'm doing now, and what's ahead.
We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.
When my face is flushed with blood, it becomes red and obscene. It betrays at the same time, through morbid reflexes, a bloody erection and a demanding thirst for indecency and criminal debauchery.
Wherever there's injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it's happening.
I learned how to make jokes because I wanted to give people as much fun as they did, and I guess I did, too.