"Well if we take all these things And we bury them fast And we pray that they turn into seeds To roots and then grass It'd be all right, it's all right It'd be easier that way Or if the sky opened up and started pouring rain Like He knew it was time to start things over again It'd be all right, it's all right It'd be easier that way"

"Cars are little blood cells We are oxygen City is the airways Suburbs appendages"

"How darkly the dark hand met his end He was withered and bony; exposed for a phony But we heed the last words that he penned Haste to disgrace the traitor, do not wait till later"

"Well I wish that I was as good as you Caring and trusting And I wish that my condition was new But I'm old and rusting"

"When the army had to hold the line Well you were nowhere near the front Before the kids could tell the dog "goodbye" Well, you were loading up your gun I wanna know I've left the great divide I wanna know what I've become You think that no one else is lonesome You think that you're the only one?"

"I stole bricks from the dam almost every day Now I'm drowning in the flood I made Explain myself to me on the other side I'm gonna want some answers when I die"

"The champ goes down like a clown in the second round I wish we'd had a better goodbye"

"Where's all my hope and my marriage license?"

"Something's stirring in a deep Atlantic trench Doesn't forget the thousand years before it slept It's the beast, it's my heart, it's open Dive down into it till you hear a tick"

"Let's all go play Nagasaki What a lovely way to die A final show and we all go So no one has to say goodbye"

"Well I guess nothing can be perfect, so here's a comforting thought At the bottom of the ocean fish won't judge you by your faults"

"Do you know the words that make the hidden door open? Can you speak my secret name and fix me? I have no heart, I have no brain Lord I have no courage Can you get me home again?"

"I'm hoping that in time, you can lay down All this weight you've been carrying around and maybe one day You'll find your way To climb on up out of your grave With the bits of you you managed to save"

"I want to tell you we're alright Want to erase all your doubt I've got this thorn dug in deeply Sometimes I can't get it out"

"You try to tell her what to do And all she does is stare at you Her stare is louder than your voice Because truth doesn't make a noise"

"I like them, but I don't see how they're in any way a manifestation of the blues."

"The White Stripes were part of a wave of retro-minded young bands who gave rock music a much-needed jolt in the first few years of the 21st century, but they're less nostalgic bashers than a brilliant conceptual creation: a divorced Detroit couple who masqueraded as brother and sister, named themselves after their band (or vice versa), wore alternating white-and-red outfits, and rewired the blues for the new generation."

"That would break up the thing of vocals, guitar and drums. Somebody else there would bring this fourth component. If you're going to have four components, you might as well have 20, y'know?"

"Downtown Detroit has more vacant buildings over 10 storeys than any city in the world. Tons of skyscrapers with nothing in them. [The flag] is the idea of rooting for the underdog, because Detroit has such a bad reputation."

"Well, in every complicated situation there's a human relation Making sense of it all takes a whole lot of concentration Well, you can blame the baby for her pregnant ma And if there's one of these unavoidable laws It's just that you can't just take the effect and make it the cause"

"Now my mind is filled with rubber tires and forest fires and whether I'm a liar and lots of other situations where I don't know what to do, at which time God screams to me, "There's nothing left for me to tell you""

"I travel backwards in ecstasy"

"One sound can hold back a thousand hands when the pipe plays a tune forlorn"

"Well, Americans, what? Nothing better to do? Why don't you kick yourself out? You're an immigrant, too!"

"Icky thump with the lump in my throat Grabbed my coat and I was freaking, I was ready to go Yeah, I swear, beside the hair she had one white eye One blank stare, lookin' up, lyin' there"

"I go down to the river Filled with regret I go down and I wonder If there was any reason left I left just before my lungs could get wet I'm lonely, but I ain't that lonely yet"

"You wanna take away from me Things that are mine and it's not your right It's odd that you wouldn't expect a fight Can it be that I don't want what you want?"

"Can you believe some things are not Appealing as a spot On the ceiling of my childhood bedroom?"

"I am as ugly as I seem Worse than all your dreams"

"My friends are all dying And death can't be lying It's the truth and it don't make a noise"

"I blew it And if I knew what to do, then I'd do it But the point that I have, I'll get to it That forever for her is over for me "Forever"—just the word that she said that means never To be with another together And with the weight of a feather it tore into me"

"The nurse should not be the one who puts salt in your wounds But it's always with trust that the poison is fed with a spoon"

"Love really bores me"

"I've got your phone number written in the back of my bible"

"Well strip the bark right off a tree and just hand it this way Don't even need a drink of water to make the headache go away Give me a sugar pill and watch me just rattle down the street Acetaminophen—you see the medicine—oh, girl You have no faith in medicine"

"Well, don't you remember? You told me in December That a boy is not a man until he makes a stand Will, I'm not a genius, But maybe you'll remember this: I never said I ever wanted to be a man"

"Life is so boring It's really got me snoring"

"I wanna hold your little hand if I can be so bold And be your right-hand man 'til your hands get old And then when all the feeling's gone Just decide if you want to keep holding on I want to hold your little hand if I can be so bold If I can be so bold If I can be so bold"

"I had opinions that didn't matter I had a brain that felt like pancake batter"

"It's quite possible that I'm your third man, girl But it's a fact that I'm the seventh son"

"I'm afraid to even open my eyes"

"I need the fuel to make my fire bright"

"You make me feel a little older Like a full grown woman might But when you're gone I grow colder Come to me again in the cold, cold night"

"I saw you standing in the corner On the edge of a burning light"

"Listen, master, can I ask you a question? Is it the fingers or the brain that you're teaching this lesson?"

"All the words are gonna bleed from me And I will think no more"

"Don't wanna hear about it Every single one's got a story to tell Everyone knows about it from the Queen of England to the Hounds of Hell"

"No harm will come of this One little midnight kiss"

"What a season To be beautiful Without a reason"

"All you little kids seem to think you know just where it's at Oh, I think I smell a rat"