Trent Reznor Quotes & Sayings

I thought I'd reached the bottom a few times, but then I'd realise there was another 30 floors of despair below that. — Trent Reznor

In Nine Inch Nails, I've been the guy calling the shots since inception. I'd gotten used to that. — Trent Reznor

My experience with record labels throughout my career has generally fallen into wishing I could do things that they're not built to do, whether it be arguing about having a nicer package - because I do believe some people care about that - to trying to always bank on art-versus-the-easy-commerce route; there's always been headbutting involved. — Trent Reznor

Jumping through any hoop or taking advantage of any desperate situation that comes up just to sell a product is harmful. It is. — Trent Reznor

Being human is a lot more difficult than being on tour. — Trent Reznor

I wanted to escape Small Town U.S.A. To dismiss the boundaries, to explore. My life experience came from watching movies, TV, and reading books and magazines. When your culture comes from watching TV everyday, you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool, places that seem interesting, people who have jobs and careers and opportunities. — Trent Reznor

My input for the first 16, 17 years of my life was AM radio, FM radio - pretty mainstream stuff. Rolling Stone was probably as edgy as it got. — Trent Reznor

I'm very much aware of the dangers of becoming a cliche. Mr. Anger, someone who gets meaner, angrier on record. — Trent Reznor

I write most of my songs when I'm in a bad mood. — Trent Reznor

To me, rock music was never meant to be safe. I think there needs to be an element of intrigue, mystery, subversiveness. Your parents should hate it. — Trent Reznor

The Grammys make me hate music, and certainly everyone in the ass-licking music industry. — Trent Reznor

When I first played 'Wolfenstein 3D,' it blew my mind. It had a big impact on me. — Trent Reznor

I spent a long time experimenting, saying, 'Here's a record that's free, or $5 if you want a nice version or $250 if you'd like a really nice coffee-table thing.' Everything felt like the right thing to do at the time and then six months later would feel tired. And I would feel tired. So that's one reason for returning to a major label. — Trent Reznor

There's something exciting and incredibly liberating for an artist to finish something Friday night and the world hears it Friday night instead of eight months later after marketing people and all those assholes get involved. — Trent Reznor

I thought my goal in life was to be in a successful band, and I had got that, but I was as miserable as I had ever been, and I couldn't understand why that would be. — Trent Reznor

One step closer to the end of the world. The one-two combo of corporate greed and organised religion apparently proved to be too much for reason, sanity and compassion. — Trent Reznor

My experience with being on a record label over the years has been when both of your agendas are in sync, and they're the same goal, it's great to have another army of people and resources and money. But most of the time, they're not the same. Their agenda is just simply to sell plastic discs at any cost, and yours is to preserve - at least in my case - your integrity, and hopefully sell some plastic discs, too. — Trent Reznor

Now that I have a thousand albums in my car all the time, I listen to more music. I was too lazy; I always had the same five discs in there. I'd never think to change it. — Trent Reznor

It probably wasn't until Nine Inch Nails played the first Lollapalooza that I actually went to a festival. — Trent Reznor

I think there's something strangely musical about noise. — Trent Reznor

The dynamic of a relationship changes when one person gets sober. — Trent Reznor

I aspire to make a record that sounds better 10 listens in than it does after two, and still, at 50 listens, you're picking out things that add a depth and a thoughtfulness to it; there's enough in there that you can still be extracting pieces out of it. — Trent Reznor

I think early on in my career, I was heavily inspired by bands like Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept, and films of David Lynch, for example, where the soundscape plays a very important role in the listening experience. — Trent Reznor

My moral standing is lying down. — Trent Reznor

I didn't want to be in a Pepsi commercial with R2-D2 sitting on my shoulder. — Trent Reznor

When your culture comes from watching TV every day, you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool, places that seem interesting, people who have jobs and careers and opportunities. None of that happened where I was. You're almost taught to realize it's not for you. — Trent Reznor

My doctor says, 'You've got one of the hardest ones to treat because it's not bipolar, it's not up and down, you're always just about a quart low in the mood department, — Trent Reznor

It's a humbling thing, having kids. One of my sons came to rehearsals, and now he says Daddy's job is 'go play loud music.' — Trent Reznor

If you can use a search engine, you can find any piece of music that's been recorded for free. I'm not saying that's right, but it's a fact, and I'm surprised that more people don't accept or acknowledge that and try to adapt in some way. — Trent Reznor

Making noise is easy; making stuff people understand is an easy thing to do. — Trent Reznor

I do remember my first purchase: the Partridge Family's 'Greatest Hits.' I got it for $3.99 at a failed chain of pre-Wal-Mart-type stores called Jamesway. God, I'm old. — Trent Reznor

I have been wildly enthused about gaming since I was younger, and a career path I chose not to go down but did really consider was getting into programming and game design. — Trent Reznor

One of my biggest heroes and people I was fortunate enough to be around is David Bowie. I look at his career, and he always had the balls to break things that weren't broken, to step away from something and try something new, at risk of failing. — Trent Reznor

'Yeezus,' I really love it. I think the sound of it is cool. — Trent Reznor

Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is, 'Oh, I'm on stage playing a song,' because you're daydreaming about something else, you're on autopilot. You have to fight that. — Trent Reznor

Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and 'clean' versions be made for them to carry. — Trent Reznor

Spotify - I met those guys before they launched in America and was wildly excited about the idea. 'Wow, this is all the music in the world, for a flat fee.' — Trent Reznor

After coming from a major label, I realized the entire business has been decimated, and you can't look to labels to try to figure it out because they don't even use the technology, and they're oblivious to how people consume music these days. — Trent Reznor

The idea of politics is just so uninteresting to me - I've never paid much attention to it. I don't believe things can really change. It doesn't matter who's president. Nothing really gets resolved. I don't know. I guess that's not the right attitude to take. — Trent Reznor

I watch people, friends of mine, and see how they portray themselves online and I find interesting that it's kind of a hyper-real version of yourself, how you'd like to be seen, in a way. — Trent Reznor

I think my music's more disturbing than Tupac's - or at least I thought some of the themes of 'The Downward Spiral' were more disturbing on a deeper level - you know, issues about suicide and hating yourself and God and people and everything else. — Trent Reznor

I feel uncomfortable because I'm insecure about who I am. — Trent Reznor

I don't have a family. I'd like to have one. I just haven't somehow gotten around to it yet. — Trent Reznor

The 'Downward Spiral' album was a record all about beating everybody up - and then 'Hurt' was like a coda saying maybe I shouldn't have done that. But to make the song sound impenetrable because I thought it was a little too vulnerable, I tried to layer it in noise. — Trent Reznor

Perfect little dream, The kind that hurts the most. — Trent Reznor

I need boundaries. In the modern studio there are a bunch of instruments around me, and I can simulate anything I can't play, so sometimes the palette feels too big. — Trent Reznor

And when the day arrives I'll become the sky and I'll become the sea and the sea will come to kiss me for I am going home. Nothing can stop me now. — Trent Reznor

If I come up with rules or limitations it focuses me in a direction. And those rules can change if you realize it's a dumb idea. You start to mutate it to see what fits best. — Trent Reznor

I think it's just an awkward time right now to be a musician. — Trent Reznor

I do actually believe in love. I can't say that I'm 100 percent successful in that department, but I think it's one of the few worthwhile human experiences. It's cooler than anything I can think of right now. — Trent Reznor

I miss how a record label can help spread the word that you have something out. — Trent Reznor

What is exciting is taking back the excitement of being able to debut something to an audience in exactly the way you want to. — Trent Reznor

I believe sometimes you have a choice in what inspiration you choose to follow and other times you really don't. — Trent Reznor

I like the idea of working in an album-sized chunk, you know, and I never looked at Nine Inch Nails as a project that would be a hit-driven, single-based kind of thing. — Trent Reznor

Any time I sit down and write music, the first part of that is always centering myself and thinking about who I currently am. — Trent Reznor

In my life, I was always floating around the edge of the dark side and saying what if take it a little bit too far, and who says you have to stop there, and what's behind the next door. Maybe you gain a wisdom from examining those things. But after a while, you get too far down in the quicksand. — Trent Reznor

This isn't meant to last. This is for right now. — Trent Reznor

God is DEAD, and no one cares! If there is a hell I'll see you there! — Trent Reznor

I don't have to save rock. I don't even like rock that much. — Trent Reznor

In my nothing, you were everything, to me. — Trent Reznor

The least responsive audience I can ever remember playing to. — Trent Reznor

Being a rock & roll star has become as legitimate a career option as being an astronaut or a policeman or a fireman. — Trent Reznor

Anyone who's an executive at a record label does not understand what the Internet is, how it works, how people use it, how fans and consumers interact - no idea. I'm surprised they know how to use e-mail. — Trent Reznor

My life has two modes. One is sitting around writing and contemplating or building things. The other is execution mode. It takes a while to switch from one to the other. — Trent Reznor

Nine Inch Nails was born out of Cleveland, Ohio, with me and a friend in a studio working on demos at night. Got a record deal with a small, little label, went on tour in a van, and a couple years later found that somehow we touched a nerve, and that first record resonated with a bunch of people. — Trent Reznor

I don't even know why I'm saying this in an interview situation, but I always feel like I'm not good enough for some reason. I wish that wasn't the case, but left to my own devices, that voice starts speaking up. — Trent Reznor

When I was around Bowie, I was nearing the bottom. When we were touring together, I looked at him as a kind of big-brother figure and I also looked at him as somebody I had a lot of respect for. The age and the period he's at in his life, I'd like to be there some day. He has a kind of content peace about him that's something to shoot for. — Trent Reznor

I often find myself listening to a record because a lot of people or magazines have told me it's good and I'm supposed to like it, and I try to stay in touch with what's happening and I'm also a fan of music. I find myself trying to like something that I really don't think is that great. — Trent Reznor

I want to do something that matters. — Trent Reznor

Why don't the Grammys matter? Because it feels rigged and cheap - like a popularity contest that the insiders club has decided. — Trent Reznor

Tired faith all worn and thin, for all we could have done, and all that could have been. — Trent Reznor

I'll be honest, watching the music industry collapse has been demoralizing and disheartening at times. — Trent Reznor

I realized that I was afraid to really, really try something, 100%, because I had never reached true failure. — Trent Reznor

I think the thing I've always tried to do is - and I didn't plan it, it just started to come out that way - is try to make challenging music that flirts with accessibility. — Trent Reznor

I realized when I was 23 that I had never really tried anything. — Trent Reznor

I did not grow up in a cosmopolitan environment. I grew up in a little town in the middle of nowhere, pre-Internet, pre-college radio. — Trent Reznor

Bowie mattered to me. He reinvented himself so many times - it must have been a daring statement to do that, risking failure. And hanging out with him and seeing him like that - he's my dad's age, born in the same month - when you find someone who's been through a really dark period, which most of his music I care about is from, Low, Lodger, "Heroes" era ... But he came out of it and made something that mattered. — Trent Reznor

Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me. — Trent Reznor

If I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself, I would find a way. — Trent Reznor

The music I always liked as a kid was stuff I could bum out to and realize, 'Hey, someone else feels that way, too.' So if someone can do that with my music, it's mission accomplished. — Trent Reznor

There's always been an element of 'right time, right place' to Nine Inch Nails. When we stepped onstage at Woodstock '94, I could sense it. I get goosebumps thinking about it now. Like, 'I don't know how we did this, but somehow we've touched a nerve.' — Trent Reznor

Grammy asshole weekend in LA. Yuck ... The Grammys = the old guard / old media propping up their puppets trying to convince the outside world (and each other) they're relevant. — Trent Reznor

Books are better than movies because you design the set the way you want it to look. — Trent Reznor

I believe there's a God but I'm not too sure of his relevance. — Trent Reznor

I lived a fairly average, anonymous small-town life till I got the idea to do Nine Inch Nails. Then I locked myself in a studio for a year, and then got off the tour bus two years after that, and I didn't know who I'd turned into. — Trent Reznor

I think the reason I was 23 before I ever wrote a song was that I was afraid of testing myself. What would I do if I discovered I didn't have anything to say? — Trent Reznor

There's nothing like a stressful day. — Trent Reznor

When I'm on stage, the songs that we've chosen to play from the back catalog are things that still resonate with me, and matter to me. And the songs that I couldn't be a part of, we don't play anymore. — Trent Reznor

Though I still have no semblance of a life outside of Nine Inch Nails at the moment, I realize my goals have gone from getting a record deal or selling another record to being a better person, more well-rounded, having friends, having a relationship with somebody. — Trent Reznor

You're standing onstage in a sold-out arena with people singing your music, and you feel like the loneliest person in the world. Because here's a party that, essentially, it's for you. And you still somehow feel like you don't belong there. Those people all have their lives and go back home. — Trent Reznor

ITunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don't feel cool when I go there. I'm tired of seeing John Mayer's face pop up. — Trent Reznor

My life has been many examples of shortsighted goals that I thought would fix things. You know, if there's something broken inside me, if there's a hole in there, I thought: If I could just write a good song someday, then I'd be OK. You know, if I could just be on stage in front of people I'd never seen before and be validated by them. — Trent Reznor

Musicians have always adopted Macs. — Trent Reznor

I've attended many concerts where I felt let down and I was wishing it would be something else. Not that it's their duty to please me, but at the same time, I think a lot about what it's like through the eyes of the consumer, the fan. I want not to pander to the audience, but to be aware of them. — Trent Reznor

When I was growing up, rock & roll helped give me my sense of identity, but I had to search for it. — Trent Reznor

People are always saying, 'You're really nice, I thought you were going to be a complete asshole.' I'm getting pretty fed up with it. I just want to say to them, 'Well I could always piss on your head.' — Trent Reznor

I can still make a living with touring. And maybe you buy a t-shirt. And I would rather 10 million people get my record and listen to it for free than 500,000 that I coerced to pay $15 for it, you know? — Trent Reznor

It's kind of a miracle to think that a device in your pocket can play pretty much any song that the world has ever created. — Trent Reznor

MTV can't do less for me, let's put it that way. I'm fine without them. — Trent Reznor

Balance is good, because one extreme or the other leads to misery, and I've spent a lot of my life at one of those extremes. — Trent Reznor