Maynard James Keenan Quotes & Sayings

A lot of people into Tool, for some reason, are not interested in humor. — Maynard James Keenan

I think people in general have neglected to learn about history. — Maynard James Keenan

There is still a future with music, because people want music. — Maynard James Keenan

Finding beauty in the dissonance — Maynard James Keenan

108. You minimize my moves in anyway, I must persuade you another way. — Maynard James Keenan

I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself. — Maynard James Keenan

Do unto others what has been done to you, — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

I can't be a legend yet. I'm not dead. — Maynard James Keenan

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

We're just four guys and we are enjoying what we're doing with Tool. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral. — Maynard James Keenan

I'm not an educated man. I only know what I'm told, and I'm not told that much; I have no frame of reference for how to place things in history be a responsible leader. All I can do is be an artist. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

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

Shows are really strange. Sometimes you really don't know what to expect. — Maynard James Keenan

Everything revolves around the music when it comes to Tool. — Maynard James Keenan

It's a purging of sorts. Like, when you're all done doing your laundry and it's fresh and bright, but washing the clothes, you wouldn't want to get in while it's spinning around. — Maynard James Keenan

You can grow grapes in almost any part of the world. You just have to develop your palate enough to realize wine is an expression of the place where you make it. You don't have to take over the world; just be an artist and express your area. — Maynard James Keenan

But I'm a hot-blooded Italian by nature. Whatever the situation you present, I'm going to make something out of it. — Maynard James Keenan

Up until the mid twentieth century the mountain gorilla was considered a myth. Oddly enough, a legend not unlike bigfoot or the loch ness monster. The chance of actually seeing/experiencing this elusive shadow was as likely as finding ones soulmate. Rare. Precious. Even once discovered they seemed unapproachable. The only way to get close to this magnificent creature was to become empathetic. Abandon all pretense and preconceptions. To bare an open throat. To collapse into the arms of vulnerability. All but extinct, these beings/moments are threatened by the black hearted. The cold and oblivious. The empty eyed profit seekers that overlook these rare precious moments. — Maynard James Keenan

The process that we go through in recording with Tool is very organic, but at the same time it is very thought out. There is a very left-brain process of dissecting what we're doing and drawing from source material; it's very research oriented and esoteric. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

But then it hasn't really been a focus of our government to make us an educated people. — Maynard James Keenan

Music is about listening, the more you play, the more the magic spreads. — Maynard James Keenan

102. Scramble to reach higher ground. Order and sanity, something to comfort me. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal? — Maynard James Keenan

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

I've always had an affinity for growing things. — Maynard James Keenan

You really should be able to feel the higher power of music and be moved by it, rather than listening to me waffle on and having to explain it. — Maynard James Keenan

Seems like Ive been here before.
Seems so familiar.
Seems like Im slipping
into a dream within a dream. — Maynard James Keenan

So crucify the ego, before it's far too late,
To leave behind this place so negative and blind
And cynical - and you will come to find that,
We are all one mind capable of
All that's imagined and all conceivable,
Just let the light touch you
And let the words spill through,
And let them pass right through
Bringing out our hope and reason,
Before we pine away — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

I think there's a reason why wine figures into so many religions. There's something transcendent about it. It's sort of the way that music is more than the sum of its parts. You have all these elements that make up the terroir that wine can communicate. — Maynard James Keenan

It's in my blood. My great-grandfather made wine and it's a tradition I want to pass on to my son. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

You know, I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

I always knew that I wanted to be creative, that I wanted to create something. — Maynard James Keenan

I believe that when you go into a gallery or a museum, the most powerful pieces are the ones that don't have the words in the corner that distract you from the larger piece. — Maynard James Keenan

People have to follow their hearts, and if their hearts lead them to WalMart, so be it. — Maynard James Keenan

One of the challenges we set up for 'Puscifer' was to come up with a core identity and see how far we can push it. — Maynard James Keenan

At some point, if you're lucky, you realize you're not the story. You're part of the story. The story is much bigger than you. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

Whenever you try to work through the things that we're trying to work through, that we're addressing, it ends up looking negative. Our goal is nonjudgment, nonfiltered acceptance of everything. So much of our background collectively, especially in the United States, is
denying and suppressing and disowning a lot of negativity and the darker areas. You can become swallowed up in it. It's cancerous. The goal should be to define acceptance for everything. To try and consider every aspect. To try to look into the shadows, as well as the light. — Maynard James Keenan

Threw you the obvious and you flew with it on your back,
A name in your recollection, down among a million same. - A Perfect Circle. — Maynard James Keenan

The record company's worst fear is that you'll fall in love or get rich. — Maynard James Keenan

If you want to get your soul to heaven, trust in me. Don't judge or question. You are broken now, but faith can heal you. Just do everything I tell you to do. — Maynard James Keenan

It's the role of us to run our government, the government by the people, for the people, and I don't think our government is listening to the people. It's our role as patriots to question them, because we elected them. And if they're not fairly and accurately representing us, it's the job of the people, the patriots, to take their country back. — Maynard James Keenan

If the education of our kids comes from radio, television, newspapers - if that's where they get most of their knowledge from, and not from the schools, then the powers that be are definitely in charge, because they own all those outlets. — Maynard James Keenan

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

I know the pieces fit 'cause I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame, it doesn't mean I don't desire to
Point the finger, blame the other, watch the temple topple over
To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication. — Maynard James Keenan

Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music. — Maynard James Keenan

Desert, in generally, is a very good place to find yourself. Or lose yourself. — Maynard James Keenan

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

Actually I never did stand up. I'm not that funny. — Maynard James Keenan

136. So good to see you once again. I thought that you were hiding. And you thought that I had run away. Chasing the tail of dogma. I opened my eye and there we were. So good to see you once again I thought that you were hiding from me. And you thought that I had run away. Chasing a trail of smoke and reason. — Maynard James Keenan

115.Something kinda sad about the way that things have come to be. Desensitized to everything. What became of subtlety? How can this mean anything to me..If I really don't feel anything at all? — Maynard James Keenan

Prescott National Forest is right on the edge of my home in Arizona. — Maynard James Keenan

...music, if it really resonates, will beat somewhere right near your heartbeat. That music will make sense to you...because it's in rhythm with your soul. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

After all, in today's music scene every band seems to steal from other bands. — Maynard James Keenan

112. I listened for the whisper, of your sweet insanity. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

Nowadays, you have to sell, like, half a million or a million records just to break even. — Maynard James Keenan

People get upset and it becomes an excuse to treat other people a certain way,but if you really step back, you realize what you've left behind. — Maynard James Keenan

This sort of behavior is left to the psychotic, dogmatic, fundamentalist believers you see on your TV everyday letting off bombs and killing people in the name of God. Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing. — Maynard James Keenan

The army influences everything I do. Certainly it teaches you discipline, which is a necessary element of development. I think there's more of a collaborative understanding in the band because of that. — Maynard James Keenan

Once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer. — Maynard James Keenan

Jesus Christ, why dont you come save my life.
Open my eyes and blind me with your light
and your lies. — Maynard James Keenan

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

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

Every now and then, you get people who tend to forget what this country is about, which is a melting pot of races and cultures and freedom of speech. — Maynard James Keenan

Cold silence has a tendency to
atrophy any
sense of compassion
between supposed lovers — Maynard James Keenan

Actors have these delicate appendages called Egos. — Maynard James Keenan

Put a small child in a playpen with an apple and a bunny. If s/he eats the apple and plays with the bunny, s/he's normal;but if s/he eats the bunny and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car. Somewhere along the line we must have been TAUGHT to do the wrong thing. — Maynard James Keenan

Knuckle deep inside the borderline.
This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to.
Relax. Slip away. — Maynard James Keenan

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

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. — Maynard James Keenan

I'm a pessimist. But I'm a pessimist with a sense of responsibility. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What's the difference? — Maynard James Keenan

Behind all the dark humor, Bill was talking about the same things I'd read in Joseph Campbell. If you look at things, really look, if you lift the veil, you start to recognize that light is love, is infinite, is unconditional. Bill was saying that once you understand the nature of nature, you can let go of difficulties and sign on for the ride - knowing that it's just a ride. And — Maynard James Keenan

And if you don't live, you have nothing to write about. — Maynard James Keenan

For me, life is writing and I can do it anywhere. It doesn't matter where I am. I listen. I write. I live. — Maynard James Keenan

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist. — Maynard James Keenan

A lot of names in America and Europe have their roots in Latin and Greek words. A lot of them go back to archetypes and their stories. — Maynard James Keenan

101. I may find peace with in the emptiness, how pitiful. — Maynard James Keenan

Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here — Maynard James Keenan

Life is too short not to create something with every breath we draw. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

Sure, I love fairy tales. — Maynard James Keenan

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. — Maynard James Keenan

Most religious stories and mythologies have some sort of similar root, some sort of global archetypes. — Maynard James Keenan

94. Fuck smiley glad hands with hidden agendas. — Maynard James Keenan

Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing. — Maynard James Keenan

I want to find a genie in a bottle that can grant me three wishes. I want to be able to speak, read, write, and understand any language ever written or spoken, just any language throughout the history of man. That would be one of my wishes from the genie, so I would have to put "multilingual" on the resume, should I ever find the genie. — Maynard James Keenan

Because as an only child, you have your own little world. — Maynard James Keenan