Music is always a commentary on society.

The Public is merely a multiplied ‚me.‘

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

My aim is to make the poor look rich and the rich look poor.

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

We don’t make music – it makes us.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

To cut short the question of the law of retaliation, we must note that even in its primitive form it can operate only between two individuals of whom one is absolutely innocent, and the other absolutely guilty. The victim, to be sure, is innocent. But can the society that is supposed to represent the victim lay claim to innocence?

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.

It is only in his music, which Americans are able to admire because a protective sentimentality limits their understanding of it, that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story.

What you’re seeing with Occupy Wall Street and the others are people who are unhappy and they’re directing their unhappiness now toward Wall Street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society.

I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.

It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.

Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‚nirvana‘ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.

My fans love me for me, my beats, my rhymes.

I guess you could say I devoted myself so strongly to my music that for awhile I forgot about my family. But I only get one set of parents, and I think I forgot about that for a little while.

Music has an intrinsic meaning, which has always been mysterious to me.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

I’m a songwriter. Everything affects me.

I’m not into albums that are meant to sound perfect.

There’s a reason why the Foo Fighters don’t blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them. You know, that’s hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn’t really come up, or it just hasn’t felt right.

People do not make wars; governments do.

Yeah, it’s pretty hard not to be completely cynical these days.

I think ‚Hail to the Chief‘ has a nice ring to it.

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.

I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.

So there’s nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who’s cool hates – and then making it cool.

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.

Songs don’t have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I’ve done is about alienation… about where you fit in society.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

I’ve written all my songs on every single one of my records, and that’s what’s been fun about looking back.

Music comes to me more readily than words.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

I don’t think even ungodly people realize what a society would be like that had no godly influence at all.

I love good, loud speakers.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

I sing seriously to my mom on the phone. To put her to sleep, I have to sing ‚Maria‘ from West Side Story. When I hear her snoring, I hang up.

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.

Robyn is who I am. Rihanna – that’s an idea of who I am.

I’m such an emotional and sensitive person, so it only makes sense that my songs are as well.

You get to a point where it’s like you can’t really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music.

Rock ‚n‘ roll is ridiculous. It’s absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. Now we’re wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big kiss.

You know, my sister sings, my brother plays drums in my band. My whole family is a bunch of musicians.

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

Human beings love poetry. They don’t even know it sometimes… whether they’re the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber… they’re listening to poetry.

There’s something about pulling out a real tape from a shelf and looking at it and knowing that ‚Everlong‘ is on it, or ‚Best of You‘ is on it, and it’s really special.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

There were people who incorporated melody before me, but I would deem myself the first person to successfully rap and sing.

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

It’s amazing how confused and distracted and misdirected so many people are.

I can dance to just about anything.

The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.

I know a lot of artists say this, but it’s hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There’s no tricks.