Maynard James Keenan Quotes

We're just four guys and we are enjoying what we're doing with Tool.

Desert, in generally, is a very good place to find yourself. Or lose yourself.

I think artists are going to express things from an emotional point of view, that's their job, to suggest and interpret, and report what they witness. That's their job as artists, you're looking for the rub, where's the rub, you're a storyteller, you're looking for the rub, not necessarily the solutions, or you're not necessarily educated, you're not the winner of a debate contest, a national debate contest, you're not necessarily a person who has a doctorate in anything.

Adam does most of the work when it comes to videos and he basically does the same as I do with the lyrics. The videos are his visual interpretations of our music.

I think the biggest problem working with me would be that I'm an only child, and so I have an internal dialogue that goes on that I just assume you can hear.

I feel like there's no real innovation in having some music. It's more just unique personalities and unique expressions, and you being able to tell your story.

Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.

Life feeds on life... feeds on life feeds on life... this is neccesary... this is necessary life feeds on life... feeds on life

I think the media made Manson, turned him into some larger than life figure and surrounded him with mystery and some shady glamour.

Actually I never did stand up. I'm not that funny.

I believe that music is a force in itself. It is there and it needs an outlet, a medium. In a way, we are just the medium.

I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes.

I think everything Joni Mitchell did for music was big.

Prescott National Forest is right on the edge of my home in Arizona.

Standing above the crowd, He had a voice so strong and loud And I swallowed his façade 'cause I'm so Eager to identify with Someone above the ground, Someone who seemed to feel the same, Someone prepared to lead the way, with Someone who would die for me.

Just in general, any government throughout history hasn't really wanted its people to be educated, because then they couldn't control them as easily.

I just hope that our fans are people who are inspired by music, and just use our music as a background or inspiration for whatever it is they do.

Reading is more of a left-brain process, and listening to music is a right-brain function.

I would hope they would be our fellow artists, rather than trying to emulate or idolize clowns like us.

There are people who are like monkeys in a cage just hitting the coke button. They don't really get that for [musicians and artists] to do these things, they have to fund them. They have to have something to pay the rent.

The trick is to use the drugs once to get there, and maybe spend the next ten years trying to get back there without the drug.

But you know, I'm the negative-Nancy, curmudgeon, glass-half-empty-with-a-leak-in-it guy - which is basically the fuel that fires me up anyway. Without that, we wouldn't have me.

We are eternal. All this pain is an illusion.

And if you don't live, you have nothing to write about.

We're five people, five individuals who came together to create something, to make music and to complete each other musically, to form a perfect circle.

Novell has the necessary resources to be a much more profitable enterprise but it currently lacks the vision, strategy and execution to produce respectable returns.

Life is too short not to create something with every breath we draw.

I'm a lot easier to work with now than I have been in the past, for sure.

Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused.

I always knew that I wanted to be creative, that I wanted to create something

If you take different mythologies from different cultures, the names may change and the story lines may vary but there is always something in common.

There were a lot of choices to make and I always picked artist. I never once picked doctor, lawyer, firemen or something like that. It was always artist.

Music is about listening, the more you play, the more the magic spreads.

There is still a future with music, because people want music

Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What’s the difference?

Finding beauty in the dissonance.

Actors have these delicate appendages called Egos.

I'm a pessimist. But I'm a pessimist with a sense of responsibility.

To put things back into perspective, back when we as people were struggling to survive through winters, or even through the night, I feel like there's a lot of whining about whether or not you use Asian or the words Asian or Oriental, and how it's going to offend somebody, I mean give me - I mean, just shut up.

Shows are really strange. Sometimes you really don't know what to expect

I think people in general have neglected to learn about history.

I think that every collective that you witness occurring on a stage, it's not about any one of the individuals. There's something that's happened that's kind of put all that stuff together into a much bigger result ... some alchemy.

All I can do is say I smell a rat. I don't know where it is or what kind of rat it is, but as an artist, I can express how. But I couldn't responsibly stand up and tell people which way to go, because then I'm just as guilty as the people who are telling everybody else what to do and where to go.

Blending is just like writing lyrics or finishing up the song, rearranging and arranging.

Because artists can be extremely eccentric and insane, and unfortunately, the people they hurt the most are the people that are closest to them.

Yeah, because I think it's more important just to inspire people to wake up one day and pick up a book and start feeling it out for themselves.

I feel like with music there's so much ego rooted in expressing your thoughts and your experiences with it.

Choices always were a problem for you. What you need is someone strong to guide you. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to use you - like me.