The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what critics can't put their finger on.

• I'm not interested in pop art.
• Most of my arguments with musicians through the years have had more to do with their attitude about music, or their attitude about their own lives, or their personal responsibility. Music has never really been the big centerpiece of the fight.
• The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.
• I did 13-something years of talking to wrestlers and promoters about why they did certain things and why they booked matches a certain way and what they were thinking and whether they were satisfied with the draw. And I got a lot of insight in the business.
• I'm sort of like a lame, single guy in a red sports car.
• One thing I've learned to appreciate as I've gotten a little older is direct forms of communication.
• There are people out there who are older who are cool. I want that.
• I was trying to be this person who is cool, eternally rocking.
• I grew up in the suburbs and basically associate the suburbs with cultural death.
• You know Americans are obsessed with life and death and rebirth, that's the American Cycle. You know, awakening, tragic, horrible death and then Phoenix rising from the ashes. That's the American story, again and again.