If you sit there and you know that rule #1 is just that everything you do is honest and is just a natural and instinctual extension of yourself, then there you go.

Back then, I was really into composing the entire solo, beginning to end. I wanted to have it at least 80 to 90 percent complete before going into the studio. I didn't improvise in the studio. I was young, and I didn't really have the development in my playing or the ability to show up with nothing and then put down 500 ideas. I can do that now because I'm so much more of a musician now.

If you sit there and you know that rule #1 is just that everything you do is honest and is just a natural and instinctual extension of yourself, then there you go.

Whenever I buy a painting, someone invariably says, "Oh, what a great investment." And I hate that reaction. To me, it's a matter of love and not an exchange of equity.

People are always spewing this horseshit about how age doesn't matter. Well, it does matter! I'm thirty-five, and I'm happy to be thirty-five. I can't pretend I'm still a snot-nosed 21-year-old.

I would say that I'm very proud that Metallica plays heavy music - but equally proud that we don't think like a heavy-metal band.

I don't like to be pigeonholed, and I really like that people never really know what's going on with Metllica.