"I was playing drums, and I had broken my wrist very bad playing football, and the bass player in the band... he wanted to split. So I just went to the bass; I went from Drums over to Bass. That was it. I was playing the bass within a week."

"Give me a gig!"

"I had an upright — it took me years and years to get enough bread to get it... I'm from Florida, so one morning I woke up, go in the corner and the bass is in a hundred pieces, cause the humidity is so bad, I mean, the upright just blew up. I said forget it, man, I can't afford this any more. So I went out, got a knife and took all the frets out of my Fender. That was it."

"I’m an insomniac, my mind works the night shift."

"Whenever you say that homophobia is stupid, you just get called gay."

"Q: Will Fall Out Boy ever become Fall Out Man? A: The chest hair is in the mail. So hopefully we will in four to six weeks. depending on shipping."

"Q: X-ray vision or bionic hearing? A: It's easy to hear people talking shit. I'd rather check out Patrick in his boxers with little heart prints on 'em. So vision I guess."

"Being ambiguously flamboyant really does help. I’ve had so many people come up to me and be like, ‘I felt OK to come out of the closet after you said this.’ When someone says that to me -- it’s not an event I’ve ever been through, so I don’t know what to compare it to. I don’t think I even understand how important that is to someone’s life."

"Our culture bombards us with this idea that you’re not that, and if you are that, there’s something wrong with you, and then we’re going to call you that, and then it’s an insult. There is a sense of self-empowerment or recapturing who you are by people calling you ‘fag,’ and being like, ‘Yeah, I am a fag.’ Even though you’re not. What does somebody respond? That dude has nothing to say about that again."

"I have a bit of a consummate victim in my head. That’s who I identify with throughout history. When I was 10 I would draw black eyes on myself because I thought it was cool. You’re so into people who are tragic. You want to be that so badly. But you probably aren’t really the tragic genius that you think you are."

"When I said that I make out with dudes, there was a slight sense of sexual rebellion in that. And I probably even made it a bigger deal than it was."

"Inside the car sat a sulky blonde And on her lap the road went on and on As she dresses I look to the ground Perhaps I know where the place can be found, and on ~ The Night is Very Soft"

"Loving, we've been loving, but sometimes hate is better You can't keep out the killers with love, man Hating, we've been hating, but only love can heal up the hate ~ Nightfriends"

"So now we're cruisin' down this shuddering highway with the dead sun shining on my back. ~ Myrrh"

"Our instruments have no way of measuring this feeling Had ever got below the floor Or penetrate the ceiling ~ Destination"

"Beyond that void is a place Where figments from bad dreams are banished Childhood nightmares all come seeking And adult logic nearly vanished ~ Chaos"

"Everything is going wrong All my songs are coming true ~ Mistress"

"I've got a nickname for you, I call you weakness I get a little strength out too, or is it meekness ~ Paradox"

"Close to you, hear all you say Even though you're continents away ~ It Doesn't Change"

"Why are those buildings swaying like trees? ~ Hotel Womb"

"Sometimes I wander under prehistoric skys Here she comes with a penetrating stare cold desert stars feel and sparkle like frost, they are so lost his seed of adulation is your butter and your bread, it's an exquisite corpse and its lips are red If you're alone and you're feeling blue, everyone in Persia probably feels like you do. ~ Lost"

"You can't be a lover if you want to keep on using What are you using that's stronger than the love Sometimes I'm knocked out by the damage that you're doing Knocked out, locked out, push comes to shove Listen to the wind tearing at the windows Watching how the white moon melts into the cloud Important little tyrants, impotent little pharaohs Men/man of sorrows lost into the crowd ~ Richochet"

"The world keeps spinning, people keep sinning all the rest is just bullshit. ~ Authority"

"The universe is female Eluding the science of men You sway and you swagger with your neat little dagger You're gonna blow it again .... I'll prove her existence in everything The soul of her rivers and stones Her acquiescence in everything Her essence, her presence, her bones. ~ Essence"

"Follow her down to worship some god Who never speaks to me, I wonder if that's odd Then he says you're never listening. ~ Lost"

"Great cities, or the endless beautiful plains stretched out before his jaded gaze and disappeared into the nothingness of his feeling. ~ Fall in Love"

"In the space between our houses some bones have been discovered but our procession lurches on as if we have recovered... ~ Destination"

"It's never as good as I hoped or as bad as I feared ~ Into My Hands"

"On this very spot a great city once stood, It oozed with evil but it felt so good... ~ City"

"The pines smell sweet in the frozen air, and their silhoutte's just fading there, the wolves crouch close, against the snow but where we're running I don't know, In villages and soft sad towns the candles sway as night comes down, cold bones creak and strange beasts cry, watching shadows in the sky... All I have, all I need, all I got.....is providence. ~ Providence"

"She put her foot down on the oscillation pedal, she was a transdimensional speeder... ~ Terra Nova Cain"

"I paid eighty dollars for this wedding ring, I couldn't take it off if I tried... ~ Hotel Womb"

"You stare down at some crowd from your trapeze And when you fell they fell down on their knees And when you broke they scrambled for a piece And when you spoke I felt their anger freeze. ~ Metropolis"

"Ugliness you have to know, beauty you can't teach ~ Disappear"

"Like a womb, the night was all around ~ Disappear"

"And she beckons to you with her fingers and lies She says: can't you slice the price of your paradise. ~ A Month of Sundays"

"There were many guests at the table Misfortune, jealousy, and sloth Acting fine, drink the wine Spill it on the tablecloth - "Feast""

"Just like you I am a wanderer Wandering, wondering Outrunning all my previous lives So cleave to me just like a tiny storm A raining and a thundering Coming out of clear blue skies - "All I Know""

"We have the pool Ah - No that's cruel Why do you take me for A fool? Try the rails It's just not me No No No No - Siree"

"Pour ourselves a glass of stout And let our Rael Brook shirts hang out Nothing makes us more content To let us wallow in a bit of nonsense"

"Yes I'm talking about this war dance A patriotic romance And I know all you poets Have seen it all before About the stirring of those young hearts Back in the first world war"

"The scapegoat blood spilled Spittled and grilled it crackled and spat And children grew fat on the meat Change must be earnt"

"Some people say That I am out of my tree Or just a strawberry fool Someday they'll see Till then I'll blow you a raspberry 'Cos apples and pears are me"

"Shocked me too the things we used to do on grass It would shock you too the things we used to do on grass Grass, grass. Things we did on grass"

"Yes, I weeping, a teardrop attack I give emotion at the drop of a hat When I remember days at school I remember many things, but Most of all, I remember the sun"

"England can never repay you You gave your life to be buried alongside The place you loved The sermons attended when you were young Still echo round these churchyard walls"

"Oh Lord deliver us from the elements We at your mercy and your reverence Oh Lord deliver us from the elements We've no defence we are impotent"

"Can't you see Love and affection When it's put In your direction Wrapped in your mysterious wonderland"

"You caught mum chasing dad with a knife You ran away to escape from the fights Now you're lost in a maze of neon light And she's worried, he's worried, she's worried, oh..."