When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep.

• We tried not to age, but time had its rage.
• In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.
• I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.
• I don't think the Palestinian people or Afghan children or some other things I'm concerned about are at the top of other people's agendas - not right now, when America is going through such a recession and people are suffering across the board financially. But I think all that will change.
• I've always looked the same. Since I was a child, I hated having to deal with my hair. I hated having to change my clothes. As a kid, I had a sailor shirt and the same old corduroy pants, and that's what I wanted to wear everyday.
• The new artists coming through were very materialistic and Hollywood, not so engaged in communication.
• From very early on in my childhood - four, five years old - I felt alien to the human race. I felt very comfortable with thinking I was from another planet, because I felt disconnected - I was very tall and skinny, and I didn't look like anybody else, I didn't even look like any member of my family.
• To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It's freedom.
• No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist.
• The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times.