232 quotes found
"The song is heroic because the song confronts death. The song is immortal and bravely stares down our own extinction. The song emerges from the spirit world with a true message: Some day I will tell you how to slay the dragon."
"Do you want to know how to write a song? Song-writing is about counterpoint. Counterpoint is the key. Putting two disparate images beside each other and seeing which way the sparks fly. Like letting a small child in the same room as, I don't know, a Mongolian psychopath or something, and just sitting back and seeing what happens. Then you send in a clown, say, on a tricycle, and again, you wait, and you watch ... And if that doesn't do it... you shoot the clown."
"Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite, it is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self. This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value; it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering."
"Do I personally believe in a personal God? No."
"God has matured. He is not the impulsive, bowelless being of the Testaments - the vehement glorymonger, with His bag of cheap carny tricks and his booming voice - the fiery huckster with his burning bushes and his wonder wands. Nowadays God knows what He wants and He knows who He wants."
"My responsibility as an artist is to turn up at the page or the piano or the microphone. The rest is up to God."
"The actualising of God through the medium of the love song remains my prime motivation as an artist."
"Of course I doubt [the existence of God], I would distrust anybody who didn't doubt. But I'm a believer. I have an understanding and belief in the divinity of things. It seems to me that people look at God in the wrong way. They think that God is there to serve them, but it's the other way around. God isn't some kind of cosmic bell-boy to be called upon to sort things out for us. It's important for us to realise that God has given us the potential to sort things out on our own."
"Oh, a passing, skeptical kind of interest. I'm a hammer-and-nails kind of guy."
"The concept of God in America is very different than it is in England. Because we see the horrendous outcome of religion as being an American thing, in which the name of God has been hijacked by a gang of psychopaths and bullies and homophobes, and the name of God has been used for their own twisted agendas. So that if you mention God, or a belief in God, in England, it's almost automatically associated with that kind of thinking. Religion's gotten a really bad name."
"Although I've never been an atheist, there are periods when I struggled with the whole thing. As someone who uses words, you need to able to justify your belief with language, I'd have arguments and the atheist always won because he'd go back to logic. Belief in God is illogical, it's absurd. There's no debate. I feel it intuitively, it comes from the heart, a magical place. But I still I fluctuate from day to day. Sometimes I feel very close to the notion of God, other times I don't. I used to see that as a failure. Now I see it as a strength, especially compared to the more fanatical notions of what God is. I think doubt is an essential part of belief."
"God is in everything whether I’m mentioning him or not."
"The brutality of the Old Testament inspired me, the stories and grand gestures. I wrote that stuff up and it influenced the way I saw the world. What I'm trying to say is I didn't walk around in a rage thinking God is a hateful god. I was influenced by looking at the Bible, and it suited me in my life vision at the time to see things in that way. .... After a while I started to feel a little kinder and warmer to the world, and at the same time started to read the New Testament."
"If you're involved with imagination and the creative process, it's not such a difficult thing to believe in a God. But I'm not involved in any religions, and I've never intended to make religious records or records that preach some kind of point of view."
"The thing about being young is that you think you're the final product of evolution. You are invincible. And nothing can hurt you. And people don't count. Ah, the solipsism of youth."
"I don't particularly believe all love is doomed. But I guess, one is usually kinda suffering from some aborted love affair or association, rather than being at the peak of one. I think it's fairly obvious that a lot more suffering goes on in the name of love than the little happiness you can squeeze out of it. But I wouldn't like to dwell on it. Perhaps you could lighten up a bit."
"Love is a state that I would like to exist in continuously."
"My social conscience is fairly limited in a lot of ways; there's not much I'm angry about that doesn't affect me quite directly. But the prison system- not particularly capital punishment- but the penal system as it is, and the whole apparatus of judgement, people deciding on other people's fates... that does irritate, and upset me quite a lot. What angers me about the system goes beyond the unreliability of "proof"… it's that the way criminals are dealt with has nothing to do with rehabilitation and readjusting people who've stepped outside society's norms. The same goes for mental institutions and so forth. But it's also the very idea of someone being judged "criminal" or "insane" because they're unable to fit into what a corrupt society considers "social" or "sociable"."
"I think there's a certain numbness in modern society, that accepts certain kinds of violence, but represses other kinds of violence."
"I'd rather see what makes me different as something almost congenital. And I have these inklings that what you commit or endure in this world, relates to some kind of justice or balance. Maybe if you get a bad deal in this world, it is because of something you did, or were, in a previous life. Which is why I don't feel sorry for the poor."
"'N is for Any'"
"Bunny takes another bite of his Big Mac and knows what everybody who is into this sort of things knows - that with its flaccid bun, its spongy meat, the cheese, the slimy little pickle and, of course, the briny special sauce, biting into a Big Mac is as close to eating pussy as, well, eating pussy."
"The boy watches his father cross the road and thinks there is something about the way his dad moves through the world that is truly impressive. Cars screech to a halt, drives shake their fists and stick their heads out the windows and curse and blow their horns and Bunny walks on as if radiating some super-human force field, like he has walked off the pages of a comic book. The world can't touch him. He seems to be the grand generator of some hyper-powerful electricity."
"The sound is beautiful, it's perfect! The sound of her young legs in stockings, The rhythm of her walk, it's beautiful! Just let it twist, let it break, Let it buckle, let it bend, I want to hear the noise of my Zoo-Music Girl."
"My body is a monster driven insane, My heart is a fish toasted in flames."
"Oh! God! Please let me die beneath her fists!"
"Nick the Stripper, Hideous to the eye, Hideous to the eye, He's a fat little insect, A fat little insect, And oooooooh! Here we go again."
"King Ink strolls into town... He sniffs around."
"Express thyself! Say something loudly! Aaaaaaah! What's in that room, Sonny?"
"King Ink feels like a bug, Swimming in a soup-bowl."
"Oh! Yer! What a wonderful life! Fats Domino on the radio!"
"Hit it! With words like Blood, Soldier and Mother..."
"I tried to kill it in my bed, I gagged it with a pillow, But awoke the nuns inside my head."
"Pilgrim gets 1 hacked daughter, And all we get are 40 hack reporters, Uptown 100 skirts are bleeding, And Mr. Evangilist says She's hit, ev'ry little bit."
"I am the king! I am the king! I am the king! One dead marine through the hatch, Scratch and scrape this heavenly body, Every inch of winning skin, Honey Honey Honey Honey Honey, come and kiss me-e-e-e-e-e!"
"My baby is alright, She doesn't mind a bit of dirt, She says 'Horror vampire bat bite, sex vampire, how I wish those bats would bite', Woooooah! Bite! Bite! Release the bats!"
"The Captain's fore-arm like buncht-up rope, With Anita wrigglin' free onto skull n' dagger, And a portrait of Christ, nailed to an anchor, Etched into the upper..."
"Tallys up his loneliness, notch by notch, For the sea offers nuthin' to hold or touch."
"Along crags and sunless cracks I go, Up rib of rock, down spine of stone, I dare not slumber where the right winds whistle, Lest her creeping-soul clutch this heart of thistle."
"Put ya shoulder to the handle, if ya dare, and hoist that bucket hither, Crank'n'hoist'n'hoist'n'crank, till ya muscles waste'n'wither."
"O the same God that abandon'd her, Has in turn abandon'd me, Deep in the Desert of Despair, I wait at the Well of Misery."
"O ah hear her walkin', Walkin' barefoot 'cross the floor-boards, All thru this lonesome night, And ah hear her crying too. Hot-tears come splashin' down, Leaking thru the cracks, Down upon my face, ah catch'em in my mouth!"
"Ah read her diary on her sheets, Scrutinizin' every lil' piece of dirt, Tore out a page'n'stufft it inside my shirt. Fled outa the window, And shinning it down the vine, Outa her night-mare, and back into mine."
"'O come to me!, O come to me!' is what the dirty city say to Huck."
"Straight in the arms of the city goes Huck, Down the beckonin' streets of op-po-tunity, Whistling his favorite river-song... And a bad-blind nigger at the piano puts a sinister blooo lilt into that sing-a-long, Huck senses something's wrong!"
"The mo-o-o-on, its huge cycloptic eye, Watches the city streets contract, twist and cripple and crack."
"O you recall the song ya used to sing-a-long, Shifting the river-trade on that ol' steamer, Life is but a dream!"
"When ya done ransackin' his room, Grabbin' any-damn-thing that shines, Throw the scraps down on the street, Like all his books and his notes. All his books and his notes and all the junk that he wrote, The whole fucken lot goes right up in smoke."
"Here is the hammer, that build the scaffold, and built the box..."
"From the words and the thickets, Come the ghosts of his victims, 'We love you!' 'Ah love you!' This will not hurt a bit."
"Death favours those that favour death."
"Ah've cried one thousand tears, it's true."
"Looka yonder! Looka yonder! A big black cloud come!"
"In a clap-board shack with a roof of tin, Where the rain came down and leaked within, A young mother frozen on a concrete floor, With a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw."
"Well saturday gives what sunday steals, And a child is born on his brother's heels, Come sunday morn the first-born is dead, In a shoebox tied with a ribbon of red."
"Tupelo-o-o! Hey, Tupelo! You will reap just what you sow."
"I just made a simple gesture, They jumped up and nailed it to my shadow, My gesture was a hooker, You know, my shadow's made of timber."
"I am the black crow king, Keeper of the forgotten corn, The King!"
"O Warden, I surender to you, Your fists cain't hurt me anymore, You know, these hands will never wash, These dirty Death Row floors."
"O You kings of halls and ends of halls, You will die within these walls, And I'll go, all down the row, Knockin' on Joe."
"Blind Lemon Jefferson is a-comin', Tap tap tappin', with his cane."
"Here comes the Judgement train! Git on board!"
"Numbin' the runt of reputation they call rat frame, Top-E as a tourniquet, A low tune whistles across his grave, Forever the slave of his Six Strings."
"A thousand Marys lured me, To feathered beds and fields of glover, Bird with crooked wing cast, Its wicked shadow over, A bauble moon did mock, And trinket stars did smile, Your funeral, my trial."
"The carny had a horse, all skin and bone, A bow-backed nag, that he named "Sorrow", Now it is buried in a shallow grave, In the then parched meadow."
"And as the company passed from the valley, into a higher ground, The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow, and on the mound, Until nothing was left, nothing at all except the body of Sorrow, That rose in time, to float upon the surface of the eaten soil."
"I hear stories from the chamber, How Christ was born into a manger, And like some ragged stranger died up on the cross, And might I say it seems to fitting in its way, He was a carpenter by trade, Or at least that's what I'm told."
"In heaven His throne is made of gold, Where the ark of His testament is stowed, A throne from which I'm told all history does unfold, Down here it's made of wood and wire, And my body is on fire, And God is never far away."
"And the mercy seat is melting, And I think my blood is boiling, And in a way I'm spoiling, All the fun with all this truth and consequence. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, And anyway I told the truth, And I'm not afraid to die."
"My oh My,what a wretched Life. I was born on the day that my poor mama died. I was cut from Her belly with a stanley knife. My daddy did a jig with the drunk midwife"
"O poor heart, I was doomed from the start, Doomed to play the villian's part, I was the baddest Johnny in the apple cart, My blood was blacker than the chambers of a dead nun's heart."
"Who's that yonder all in flames? Draggin' behind him a sack of chains Who's that yonder all in flames? Up jumped the Devil and staked his claim"
"O no don't go O no O slow down Joe! The righteous path is straight as an arrow, Take a walk and you'll find it's too narrow, Too narrow for the likes of me."
"Thrown into a dungeon, Bread and water was my portion, Faith - my only weapon, To rest the devil's legion. The speak-hole would slide open, A viper's voice would pleade, A voice think with innuendo, Syphillis and greed."
"The moon was turned toward me, Like a platter made of gold, My death, it almost bored me, So often was it told."
"In the days of madness, my brother, my sister, When you're dragged toward the Hell-mouth, You will beg for the end, but there ain't gonna be one, friend, For the grave will spew you out! It will spew you out!"
"One morn I awakened, a new sun was shining, The sky was a kingdom, all covered in blood. The moon and the stars, where the troops that lay conquered, Like food left to wither, poor spirital food."
"The spears of the bright sun, all brave with its conquest, Did hover unearthly, in banners of fire. I knelt in the garden, awash with the dawning, And a voice came so brightly, I covered my eyes."
"Let there be no sadness, no sorrow, Let there be no road too narrow, There'll be a new day, and it's today, For all of us."
"Hold me up baby, for I may fall, Hold my dish-rag body tall, Our bodies melt together, we are one, Post-crucifixion baby, post-crucifixion and all undone."
"Fingers down the throat of love! Love! Love!"
"The woods eats the woman and dumps her honey-body in the mud, Her dress floats down the well and it assumes the shape of the body of a little girl, Yeah, I recognize that girl, She stumbled in some time last loneliness, But I could not stand to touch her now, My one and only onlyness."
"I took her from rags right through to stitches, Oh baby, tonight we sleep in separate ditches."
"Another ship ready to dock... the rigging comes loose... like Jennifer's Veil."
"If this is heaven ahm bailin' out!"
"Ah wassa born... And Lord shakin', even then was dumpt into some icy font, Like some great stinky unclean! From slum-chuch to slum-church, ah spilt mah heart to some fat cunt behind a screen..."
"Punishment? Reward! Punishment? Reward!"
"Well, ah tied on, percht on mah bed ah was, Sticken' a needle in mah arm, Ah tied off, Fucken wings burst out mah back!"
"Rats in paradise! Rats in paradise!"
"He is an Australian artist like Sidney Nolan is an Australian artist - beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute."
"I'm looking forward to working with Nick on something special one day. .... He has an amazing gift, a level of spirituality and self-realisation in his writing you don't often find. A Hemingway or Xavier Herbert of our time."
"Nick Cave and myself got up and did karaoke in Brisbane one night at this Mongolian BBQ karaoke restaurant. It was just a bunch of normal, Brisbane folk. Me and Nick got up to do "Fernado", "Sometimes When We Touch" and "He's Not Heavy, He's My Brother". I was just playing the straight man, but Nick was doing the whole Birthday Party bit, with the kneedrops and the 'Raarrggh!', running up to tables doing the cabaret terrorist act, kissing old ladies. They took it for two numbers, and by the third they'd had enough and wanted to go back to, well, enjoying their evening."
"There was one review [of Stadium Arcadium] by an English newspaper where the guy really hated us and it was full of insults and descriptions about how terrible and worthless we are and how inane our music is. The guy mentioned that Nick Cave really thought we were a shitty band and printed a quote that Nick Cave had said in that regard. For a second that hurt my feelings because I love Nick Cave. I have all of his records. I don't care if Nick Cave hates my band because his music means everything to me and he is one of my favourite songwriters and singers and musicians of all time. I love all the incarnations of the Bad Seeds. But it only hurt my feelings for a second because my love for his music is bigger than all that shit and if he thinks my band is lame then that's OK."
"Nick Cave's making a lot of money, which is braindeath. I mean, going on tour with the same band for 20 years and playing the same songs–I don't care how you twist them, or torture the songs, you know? If it takes to be a posturing grandpa Wayne Newton-sounding bad Vegas-balladeer to get rich, I don't give a shit. I think this is lame. You know, he was one of the great poets and rocked like no other, but he's pathetic. How do these goth kids buy this crap? That's his genius; he's convinced goth kids to listen to their grandfathers' music."
"I heard Nick Cave for the first time on an independent radio station in Australia, and the way he uses words is breathtaking. And it’s very melodic at the same time, very anthem-like. He also wrote a book called And the Ass Saw the Angel, from the perspective of a fetus in a womb. He’s really arrogant, but he can afford to be."
"He taught me to never veer too far from who I am, but to go further, try different things, and never lose sight of myself at the core."
"Outside the world of politics, one person in the world of the arts I would mention as an influence is Nick Cave, another person who has been around since the late 1970s. He has developed and changed remarkably, whilst remaining true to his vision. He has been a great help to me as well, without his knowing it."
"I listen to his records and go to his concerts. That's the greatest compliment I can pay an artist."
"On 30 March 1983 The Birthday Party played Los Angeles. Me and all the guys from Black Flag went to see them do two sets at a small place called The Roxy, and they were thoroughly godhead. They were one of the all-time premier live bands. .... I see Nick about once a year, which is about as much as I see anybody I don't work with. But that means when I do run into him it's really great to see him. He's an excellent human and I love him a lot and that's the bottom line, he's one of my favourite people, and I think he's a tremendous artist. He has a great band, too. The Bad Seeds are a band I will travel a great distance to see whenever possible. What Nick goes after is so incredibly interesting every time, because it's always different. He always takes chances. The art comes before the commerce. As far as the music business goes, he's one of the good guys. He's the real thing."
"The clitoris contains 8,000 nerve endings. It makes it easy to have sex. With yourself."
"I don't feel like I've re-invented myself, I feel like I've re-discovered who I was."
""Darren Hayes recently came out and he certainly does make a good role model" - Generation Q"
"When I was married, my wife suggested I write a song about her. So I wrote 'She's Got Balls' and then she divorced me!"
"My new schoolmates threatened to kick the shit out of me when they heard my Scottish accent. I had one week to learn to speak like them if I wanted to remain intact. Course, I didn't take any notice. No-one railroads me, and it made me all the more determined to speak my own way. That's how I got my name, you know. The Bonny Scot, see?"
"Angus? I think he's kinda crazy. Since the first night I saw the band way back in Australia, I knew their manager, and I'd never seen the band before and never even heard of AC/DC. And the manager just said stand here, the band comes on in two minutes. So I stood there and this band comes on and there's this little guy, about that big, with a school uniform and a bag on his back going crazy and I laughed, and I must have laughed for half an hour. And I still laugh, and I think he's great."
"Malcolm? He's the brain [of the band]."
"No matter how long you play rock and roll, songs might change just as long as the balls are there, the rock balls. And that's what's important to us"
"What's a punk band? Hey, who's got a beer?"
"I can't even say the word, it's too early in the day to get upset."
"It keeps you fit - the alcohol, nasty women, sweat on stage, bad food - it's all very good for you."
"I've never had a message for someone in my entire life. Except maybe to give out my room number."
"I'm 33...before AC/DC I've played in a lot of bands in Australia. You're never too old to rock and roll."
"I don't give a fuck what else on the rider, as long I've got Jack Daniels."
"Atlantic reckoned we should use a top Yank producer and appointed one Eddie Kramer to the post. It turns out the guy was full of bullshit and couldn't produce a healthy fart."
"It's nothing to do with us at all, our success is due to the taste of the public."
"We've got so many ideas for songs and good riffs, and the more we work, the more we tour, we're getting more ideas, just more. It's just gonna get better and better. I can't see an end to it. It's like infinity rock and roll."
"Bon was the biggest single influence on the band. When he came in it pulled us all together. He had that real stick-it-to-'em attitude. We all had it in us, but it took Bon to bring it out."
"Often he would trail off with fans who came backstage after a show and go off with them to a party or something. He judged people as they were and if they invited him and he was in the right mood to go, he went. We used to call him 'Bon the Likeable'."
"We could be somewhere where you would never expect anyone to know him and someone would walk up and say "Bon Scott!" and always have a bottle of beer for him."
"He made a lot of friends everywhere and was always in contact with them too. Weeks before Christmas he would have piles of cards and he always wrote to anyone that he knew, keeping them informed. Even his enemies I think."
"A Beer A Day Keeps The Doctor Away."
"For those who just tuned in we're the Beatles!"
"Every Australian band wants to stick it to the Yankees."
"Maybe if I point to my brain it will work."
"Buddy Holly was the geekiest looking guy in the world, but he had some really rockin tunes."
"Fuck, you see some weird looking people around here."
"This next song is about... fish... just one singular fish... he was a lonely fish, but he died happy."
"Thanks for coming tonight, on a Sunday night. Sixty-Minutes is on and there are probably some good stories you're missing. Thanks for choosing Silverchair over Sixty-Minutes."
"If I were a fisherman, i would catch fish. If i were an octagon, I'd have many sides and if I were a prostitute, I would fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck!"
"Rip It Up: They also met Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament and Mike McCready at the Reading Festival in the U.K. and, much to Daniel's delight, ran into Soundgarden's Chris Cornell in the same area backstage."
"This guy, he just taught me chords and stuff. And after a year, I thought, I can't be bothered having lessons. So I just decided to figure out my own stuff. I never wanted to play all those fast solos. I just thought, I'll be like Pete Townshend of The Who. I'll do what he does and play powerful chords and stuff."
"It actually went like this: we were at school and Ben said he didn’t like Nirvana so much. Then one of our friends said: You should listen to Sliver. So he wanted to request Sliver for himself on the radio. And I wanted to request a song of an Australian group(You Am I), Berlin Chair. We told Chris to write Sliver Chair, but he wrote it as Silver Chair. Then we thought: That’s a good name. That’s how it went."
"Rock Sound: Did you have an imaginary childhood friend?"
"Rock Sound Magazine: Have you ever been attracted to anyone of the opposite sex?"
"I am very scared of being outside my home for long periods of time. I start sweating and shaking and having panic attacks if I am not at home. I get very anxious and am scared in crowds and things like that. Before I go onstage I just take medication and I'm alright."
"Leaving school had a big impact on me, because it was the only place I could go and maintain normality and feel a part of something and not be Daniel from silverchair. Once that safety blanket had gone I felt uncomfortable about only being Daniel from silverchair."
"When we were first playing, even though it was derivative, playing music was the best, there was nothing better. And then by the second album (Freak Show) we were like, playing music makes me angry, and by the third album (Neon Ballroom) I was like, I need to play music cos life sucks. And now all of a sudden there's this really youthful enthusiasm in the band, everyone around us, there's this real positivity and everyone's vibing off the music."
"I'm aware that if you keep shifting there are going to be people who really respect you for it and just as many who go: 'There's no stability with that dude. I'm going to buy Nickelback's new album.'"
"Not being able to tour for Diorama was definitely a huge disappointment. I was (and still am) really proud of that record but i also feel like the response to it was better than expected given the circumstances. It inspired me to top it with Young Modern."
"Being someone who has been the frontman and the songwriter for a band that has been together since I was 12 years old, you do get to that point where you think: 'If I keep doing this for too long it's going to be all I can do' … which is why in Silverchair I kept changing."
"I mean we're living in the world of iTunes; I really hate that. What's going on now is that a lot of people just release three or four singles and the rest of it is just filler and boring."
"As soon as you have a man who has no problem with maybe even alluding to androgyny and who's known for having gay friends, the media jumps on it and says, 'He's gay,' or 'He's bisexual'. I'm embarrassed for them. It's 2015 and I have heaps of gay friends and I don't care about being flamboyant. If I was bisexual, I'd say I was bisexual. If I was gay, I'd say I was gay. I wouldn't be ashamed of it. I'd celebrate it. I'd headline Mardi Gras and milk that puppy!"
"I was about 14 when I realised I didn't have the same personality type as the people I grew up with. I wanted to be a really amazing artist – I wasn't like, humble, you know? I don't really have a logical comprehension of other people, I don't understand how other people are. I knew I was never going to be normal: white picket fence, get married, have three babies. I just wanted to nurture animals and have a miniature pig and miniature horse and a little cow and a couple of puppy dogs. That was way more interesting."
"There's a theory someone told me that the age you become famous is the age you're mostly going to stay forever. Which is kind of offensive! But there's a grain of truth to it. I'm always going to have that moment where I felt like, 'It's not going to be normal ever again.' Which is not a bad thing. There are heaps of good things that come with it. Now I can write whatever music I want, record wherever I want, pretty much work with whoever I want … I'd take that above being able to go to Bondi Beach any day."
"I would do the track and put guide vocals on it and Eddie really loved the version and said he wanted to keep my backing vocals in so my girlie harmonies are in the background. My 14-year-old self would have fucking died knowing that."
"That was on a TV show. There was this poor guy taking a rich guy through a hotel to experience the losses of the less fortunate than him. The rich guy is just complaining because he just wants to get out and the poor guy is saying you have to wait till tomorrow to get out. That's one of our least serious songs but it still has meaning to it."
"That [song] was about an execution I saw on tele, that was an ad I saw on tele. I got this video of an execution, and I just saw it, and I was watching it one night, and I had a dream about it, and I woke up and thought, 'Oh yeah, that's pretty cool', and I wrote a song about it."
"With 'Abuse Me', I just wanted to get all the feelings off my chest, the feelings I'd had when I read all the negative commentary. The song is basically saying, 'Say what you like. We don't give a fuck what you think. We're just playing our music."
"It's influenced a lot by Led Zeppelin and anything from that era really. Before the album, when I actually wrote it and showed Ben and Chris, Ben and Chris liked it and they wanted to continue working on it and write a bit more, and I didn't really like the song. And they were like, 'oh, come on, we'll just use it' and so I said, 'yeah all right,' just to see how it would turn out. And it ended up changed a little bit and now I'm really happy with it."
"On "The Door", quoted in *"
"The whole thing is about youth rebelling against people who are supposedly more important. It's about youth having total control over their own minds. They do not need overweight people in suits telling them what to do and how to act. It is all about just being yourself. The chorus is very sarcastic. It is not supposed to be taken seriously."
"On "Anthem for the Year 2000", quoted in *"
"I wanted a song that people could perceive as a love song, while the lyrics are actually very angry," he reveals. "That song is about not being able to establish a relationship with anyone, not being able to experience love outside of family. I've been with girls but only for short periods of time because I'm a but scared of commitment, so after a month it's like... I'm scared that if I really like someone it won't happen, so I cut it short. A lot of the time it just feels like it's not real love. We've got girls screaming and stuff, girls saying they love us, but I think they're in love with the idea of being in love with someone onstage or in love with people they see in magazines or on television. That's not real - it's totally false."
"On "Miss You Love", quoted in *"
""The Greatest View" is a song that really focuses on people's perceptions of the same problem or the same scenario. Basically what was going on in my mind was that I had a lot of people who were watching over me and watching my every move making sure that I didn't fall back in to the heap that I fell in to whilst writing Neon Ballroom. Because I was aware of that I felt like I had the greatest view from where I was from because I could see what was going on. I was aware of the situation, I was in control of my own destiny really."
"The water out of the tap is very hard to drink"
"All the bridges in the world won't save you if there is no other side to cross to"
"Bleach the green from the pastures"
"Mistakes don't mean a thing if you don't regret them"
"Love me for my mind, because I'm a dangerous heart"
"Frozen eyes are bound to melt"
"I don't want to be lonely, I just want to be alone"
"You'll come along for the sun if you come at all"
"There's hopeless smiles better than mine"
"If only I could be as cool as you"
"Lost my soul, lost my confidence in me"
"Take the rope to my heart and fall"
"Sex, drugs, and image is just enough to get you by in the real world"
"Liberate the people that you hate"
"She tastes the candy, sugerless, cancerous"
"We are the youth! We'll take your fascism away"
"Please die Ana, for as long as you're here, we're not"
"Everyone's got the same insecurities as you Everyone's got the same insecurities as you Believe me it is true You are not alone There's no need to feel blue Everyone's got the same insecurities as you Believe me it is true Do not be afraid To show people the real you."
"At one point we got some German sausages for dinner, and my girl Anna was working the communal tomato sauce pump and she whacked it and it all squirted over my pants, and suddenly there was silence, and I realised that Muse had stopped playing, and the entire 20 odd thousand punters were looking at me, and suddenly I just threw my hands up and said ‘anyone for sauce?’ and everyone just burst into laughter and suddenly Peaches was there and she said ‘you’re alright kid’ and we high fived and then I crowd surfed all the way onto stage and Muse let me play the guitar solo for one of their songs and even though I’d never heard it I just winged it and it was awesome."
"I can understand why people would want to stay on the road because you create your own bubble. You almost don’t live in the real world. Just to have the things that are with you is fine."
"I maintain that the best song is the one that ends up on the album. So whether I’ve written it or I haven’t, I’m very comfortable with both."
"The reason that gets me is, and the greatest part of my job and what I do, is the humanity of it and there’s certain moments where that really cuts through."
"Ob Sie Adeles "Skyfall" von Megan Marie Hart intonieren, von Kylie Minogue piepsen oder von Tupac Shakur rappen lassen, macht einen Unterschied."
"You are like a star in my night I'm gonna make it alright Yes I am"
"There was this whole thing of ‘Jack's voice breaking’ about three or four months ago, and I think I sort of laughed at the whole thing, 'cause they sort of made out like I couldn't sing anymore, and my whole life was over, which it wasn't."
"I don't sing a song without it meaning something to me, or adding my own interpretation to them."
"I like to drink hot honey in water, I like to be very calm before going onstage, I don't talk at all before hand unless I'm doing warm-ups."
"The kid can sing better than nearly anyone I know, he’s a charming, good, well-natured likeable kid, he’s now a songwriter."
"You used to dealing with basic bitches, Basic shit all the time. I'm a new classic, upgrade your status From a standby to a frequent flyer."
"I'm so fancy, You already know. I'm in the fast lane, From L.A. to Tokyo. I'm so fancy, Can't you taste this gold? Remember my name, 'bout to blow."
"Walk a mile in these Louboutins, But they don't wear these shits where I'm from. I'm not hating, I'm just telling you. I'm tryna let you know what the fuck that I've been through."
"Let ya hair down and shake that shit, shake that shit, shake that shit. Sweat it out, go nuts in this bitch. Dip it, spin it, and watchin' my hips; I see you watchin' my hips."
"I sing in the language of the Heart. It's an invented language that I've had for a very long time. I believe I started singing in it when I was about 12. Roughly that time. And I believed that I was speaking to God when I sang in that language."
"I have never dared to face the disappointments that my true vocal range may bring. I have many fundamentals in my voice that give the appearance of it being very deep or very high, when in fact I believe it's quite narrow and limited."
"Music is a Place to take Refuge. It's a Sanctuary from Mediocrity and Boredom. It's Innocent and it's a Place you can loose yourself in Thoughts, Memories and Intricacies."
"If you read about African music, they believe that during the process of making this music that you come into contact with spirits from another plane. They say that this place is like a mirror of the world we live in…With the best music, you don't find the composer or the musicians within the work, you find yourself, your own feelings."
"and she believed that she was god."
"I would like to thank Jeff Wald because he makes my success possible, and I would like to thank God because She makes everything possible."
"That's a pig show. The lowest."
"We have to keep everybody happy. This is a house full of big egos."
"(The Queen of Housewife Rock) means I’ve reached a lot of people in a simplistic manner who would never go to a lecture or read an article on Women’s Lib. My basic audience is women who have had their heads turned around by the knowledge that something’s going on out there—that they can stay married and have their own identities. I’m not for the swinging singles. I have a career and marriage happening all at the same time, and that’s the example I set."
"Years back I didn't wear makeup or use a hairdresser. Then, about four years ago, I became very tired of the way men and the media were trying to present feminists - as drab, un-attractive, shrill and ugly. So I changed. Some feminists have criticized me for it, but there's a lot of compromise in this business."
"The word failure is not in my vocabulary. I learn something every day. It's human to make mistakes."
"I believe that we are consciousness, consciousness is energy, and energy can never be destroyed. It can be transformed, but it can never be destroyed."
"I’d gotten involved in the Women’s Movement, and there were a lot of songs on the radio about being weak and being dainty and all those sort of things. All the women in my family, they were strong women. They worked. They lived through the Depression and a world war, and they were just strong women. I certainly didn’t see myself as being dainty."
"I’m bothered by all these talent shows because it keeps people who are professional out of work, and these poor souls that are going on there are not getting paid, and people like Rupert Murdoch are making lots of money that they shouldn’t be."
"Movie-making is not my favorite medium, because you’re on the set for 12 hours and you might only film for three minutes. It’s very much hurry up and wait. So, although I loved doing the film, it wasn’t quite what I expected."
"There’s a moment before I walk out on stage, where it’s like electricity. And then you just go out there and it’s home. The stage is home to me."
"...I don’t think of myself as a pop star. I started out as a jazz singer. And I love having the chance to just jump in and sing songs that touch me or move me."
"As a moral issue, abortion will be debated as long as humankind is able to debate. I respect all points of view as being valid to the holder. What concerns me is abortion as a legal and political issue. I am against all reproductive laws for the same reason I am against the draft. I believe that legal ownership of one’s body is the most basic civil and human right. Without it, we are all slaves to whatever government is in power at any given time."
"The number-one rule for a celebrity is keep moving."
"History will be much kinder to Richard Nixon than his contemporaries have been. Truths will come to light that will reveal him to be a more honorable man than some who have come to that office after him."
"Oh yes, I am wise But it's wisdom born of pain Yes, I've paid the price But look how much I gained If I have to, I can do anything I am strong I am invincible I am woman"
"Would you take better care of yourself Would you be kinder to yourself Would you be more forgiving of your human imperfections If you realized your best friend was yourself"
"She was an office girl ("My name is Betty") Her fav'rite group was Helen Reddy"
"I definitely knew her song, "I Am Woman." I didn't know a lot more than that. I'm so thrilled that I got to learn a whole lot more about her over this process. I now am her biggest fan and I could probably start a museum, I’ve done enough research on her. That's what's really interesting, is that not a lot of people in my generation know a lot about her life. But that being said, her song "I Am Woman," the words are on most placards at any women's march. Her story is so incredible, and to look back and honour all the amazing work she did, and what she did for women and just the music industry in general. I mean, she had four gold records in a year. She was the first Australian to win a Grammy, and people don't know that. So it feels like a really lovely thing to be able to share that."
"It can take up to 100 chinchillas to make one coat and Jennifer Lopez has one made of 80 of them, all killed by electrocution or having their necks snapped. … Besides, wearing fur makes you look like an old woman!"
"There is no kind way to rip the skin off animals’ backs. Anyone who wears any fur shares the blame for the torture and gruesome deaths of millions of animals each year. … Saving animals is as simple as choosing synthetic alternatives instead of real fur."
"There's an old Australian stockman, lying, dying... and he gets himself up on one elbow, and he turns to his mates, who are gathered 'round him and he says..."
"I'm Jake the Peg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um, with my extra leg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um."
"There's an old Australian stockman -- er, , trying, dying. They get themselves up on their collective elbows, revert to their sixties instrumentation, and they try again."
"Can you see what it is yet?"
"There's no doubt in my mind that going vegetarian has made me feel better not only physically, but also because I learned about the suffering of animals who are raised and killed for food. I feel good knowing that I'm not contributing to that."
"If you are going to take your clothes off for something, it better be a good cause."
"You can reach the darkest point in our life and come back, and come good, even better."
"People need to understand that as well, that some of the families, maybe a lot of the families: what they did [was] out of the goodness of their hearts, and out of love."
"You realise everybody suffers…I’m able to have that hope, you know. I’m able to hold on and see the light in the darkness."
"[Music] gives a lot of young people who can’t express themselves in any other way – which is probably why they’re in the youth justice system in the first place – it gives them a voice."
"I said what I understood and I said what I was able to say."
"'From seven years old, from day one of the abuse, Michael told me that we loved each other and this was love, this was an expression of our love.'"
"'And then he would follow it up with, "but if you ever tell anyone what we are doing both of our lives and careers would be over"'."
"'I have never forgotten one moment of what Michael did to me, but I was psychologically and emotionally completely unable and unwilling to understand that it was sexual abuse.'"
"'And for the first time in my life, I began to realize that my completely numb and unexplored feelings about what Michael did to me might be a problem and maybe I need to speak to somebody about it.'"
"'The idea that I would make all of this up and put myself, my wife, my son, my entire family through this extremely stressful and painful experience all for money is incomprehensible.'"
"'I've lived in silence and denial for 22 years and I can't spend another moment in that.'"
"'I'm never going to go away with this for the sake of money. I'm never going to be silenced for money. That's not going to happen.'"
"I was writing my own songs and when I was younger, all I wanted to do was perform, so when I said ‘this is what I want to do’, mum and dad were very sceptical. But they were really supportive and I think I’m lucky to have grown up around people who are as passionate about music as I am. And they understand and support me, which is… well I’m really lucky."