Best not to mix the past with the present. The present paints the past with gold. The past paints the present with lead.
Henry RollinsThere’s got to be someone for me. It’s not too much to ask. Just someone to be with. Someone to love. Someone to give everything to. Someone.
Henry RollinsI forged myself out of a vacuum. I crawl along the highway on hacked off stumps year after year. Some wonder how and why. I never do.
Henry RollinsHaving an identity is one thing. Being born into an identity is quite a different matter.
Henry RollinsWhen someone asks you, 'What's punk?' my reply is, 'If you have to ask, you're never going to know.'
Henry RollinsI think self-reliance and self-responsibility and self-accountability will help you as a parent, a teacher, as a citizen as a friend.
Henry RollinsAmerica is off-the-hook gay. I will not go all Ann Coulter on you and say, 'Our gays are better than their gays,' but as far as countries go, we are in-your-face gay.
Henry RollinsHow memories lie to us. How time coats the ordinary with gold. How it breaks the heart to go back and attempt to re-live them. How crushed we are when we discover that the gold was merely gold-plating thinly coated over lead, chalk and peeling paint.
Henry RollinsWhen I am in Africa, I realize I don't know much, have not seen much, and there's a lot to be done.
Henry RollinsWhen you're little and you don't have much dough, you have to innovate. You have to be sharp.
Henry RollinsWhenever any great song or album gets lost in the ether, someone is deprived of the joy of hearing it, and the great effort of those who created and recorded the work is damaged.
Henry RollinsI'm trying to be confrontational and direct. If I lack directness then I only have myself to blame because I lack the skills to make my point clear.
Henry RollinsMy mother, a very eclectic listener, had the first Doors album and gave it to me when I expressed interest in the band. It was one of the first records I ever had. As the years passed, the babysitters who used to look after me would bring their Doors albums to the apartment, and that's how I got to hear their later work.
Henry RollinsSo I'm more at home with my backpack, sleeping in a hotel room or on a bus or on an airplane, than I am necessarily on a bed. It's weird being here. It feels like I'm standing next to my real life.
Henry RollinsSarah Palin embarrasses herself almost immediately upon opening her mouth to speak or upon moving her fingers to send messages to her dull flock.
Henry RollinsBarack Obama's administration responded to the Haitian crisis within 24 hours. Here comes the soldiers, here comes the food, go go go... Rush Limbaugh told his multi-millions of listeners that Obama only did that to gain favour with black people in America. This is the kind of idiocy that I have to deal with in my country.
Henry RollinsWe're at peak oil, peak water, peak resources, and so either we figure it out and let science lead or we head down a very bad, dark trail to where a lot of people aren't going to make it.
Henry RollinsThere's no retirement, there's just a few years of non-work by the fire with someone bringing you some tea and relative peace and playing with the grandchildren.
Henry RollinsIf there was a god, he wouldn't let a guy walk right up and shoot you in the face now would he? That's right, now you get the picture. Truth burns doesn't it?
Henry RollinsNo matter how rough things can be at times, many Americans are optimistic and on the move.
Henry RollinsI'm most in my element on tour, with a gig that day, like today. I'm on the road where I am supposed to be. I will be where I'm supposed to be at nighttime, on stage, in front of people, doing my thing.
Henry Rollins'Fox News' will one day come to an end. Led Zeppelin will not. It's as simple as that.
Henry RollinsIt's one thing to buy a copy of 'Atlas Shrugged.' You actually have to read it to get anything out of it.
Henry RollinsIf it's a man's world, as they say, then men, your world is a poorly run carnage fest.
Henry RollinsI think more airtime should be given to Donald Trump and Orly Taitz. They should run for office together. They should open for Charlie Sheen.
Henry RollinsWhen I think of Mick Jagger still singing that he can't get any satisfaction in over forty years of being in the Rolling Stones, I have to conclude that he's either lying or not all that bright.
Henry RollinsThere is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it's impossible to turn back.
Henry RollinsThere is a concerted effort to keep you and me, you know, the people, away from what it [war] really looks like, 'cause when you're selling war, when it's such a big industry. What they don't tell you is the rest of it and the down side of it. And so obviously there is a lot of money and a lot of time and effort being spent on that campaign "perpetual war for perpetual peace".
Henry RollinsI don't know if you have ever seen the Woody Allen film 'Annie Hall,' but it is, in a way, to Los Angeles and 'Hollywood' what 'This Is Spinal Tap' is to many musicians.
Henry RollinsThe only difference between me and others is that they think they can change something with cute little poems, nice cards or embracing trees and being nice to little lapdogs.
Henry RollinsI don't believe it mattered to Timothy McVeigh who was president or who his congressional representative was when he blew up the Murrah Building in 1995.
Henry RollinsIf American forces leave Afghanistan, the Taliban is going to do what to America? Don't say you're worried about what they will do to the Afghan people. If that was America's concern, America's operational presence there would be much different.
Henry RollinsI continually remind myself to live by a code. It's very important to me. I've got a bad temper.
Henry Rollins