Frankly I'm not great with heroin addicts. I tried heroin, but it was by accident. I'm not great with that level of substance abuse.
Michael StipeMy feeling is that labels are for canned food... I am what I am - and I know what I am.
Michael StipeI am not an autobiographical writer. I'll take little elements here and there from things that I've actually experienced-counting eyelashes on a sleeping beauty, for example.
Michael StipeWe toured that record for a year, which turned out to be the culmination of ten years of being constantly on the road. We were sick to death of touring.
Michael StipeOnce I reached my 40s, I thought to myself that if I'm going to play live now, I need to really mean this. I can't go out and be a little bit, for one moment slovenly in my choices as a performer. I mean, these people have paid a lot of money to be here, they've been through the nightmare of getting here, starving themselves waiting for us to get on stage, so I'm going to give them what they came here for.
Michael Stipe