Rollins Quotes & Sayings

I never had any interest in being involved with the Boy Scouts. — Henry Rollins

As performers grow older, I reckon there are two ways they can go. They can either be up there, playing more deeply from their guts than ever, or they can be phoning it in so crassly that it leaves a lump in your throat as you leave the venue at the end of the show. — Henry Rollins

I think as resources become more dear, we really need to consider population. — Henry Rollins

I'm not interested in censorship. I like the First Amendment very much. — Henry Rollins

The problem with so much religious communication is that it aims at changing our minds. The result is that we can hear the message of the preacher without necessarily heeding the message; we can listen to the "truth" and agree with it, yet not change in response to it. — Peter Rollins

Wrestling seemed like something I might be good at, so I stuck with it and gave it a shot. I ended up in a pretty good place. I was very fortunate. — Seth Rollins

admitted I was powerless over food,
that my life had become uninhabitable.
Sure, there are folks who speak of lives
unmanageable, but my life was always that!
It took more to push me to the admission.
I had a Hell Year when I turned 50
and it took me another ten to reach the crevice,
to fall off the edge, to give up and go
where a counselor had directed me for years,
to the rooms of recovery. I knew she was right
but I wasn't broken enough to go. Unmanageable,
I could life in. Uninhabitable I couldn't.
I fought it for nigh on sixty years
but when I finally couldn't keep on pretending,
continue making do, I found what I needed,
what I could finally accept, and soar out of there
to recovery. — Barbara B. Rollins

I'm not much of an improv guy. That's a talent I don't have. — Henry Rollins

You're mine. I knew it the first time I saw you. I will always come for you, Sara. Always. — Emme Rollins

If people are being upstanding citizens of the Republic, then you have to widen the net to incarcerate them. This explains why America's prisons are full of nonviolent offenders - a perfect example of American exceptionalism. — Henry Rollins

I can say that American men and women in the Military are damn impressive. — Henry Rollins

If some band sucks, you're going to have to find out about it for yourself, because I don't have the interest in issuing warnings. — Henry Rollins

Our religious beliefs have not provided us what they seemed to promise. — Peter Rollins

She is the gin. Cold, intoxicating. Gives you a rush, makes you warm inside, makes you lose your head. Take too much, it makes you sick and shuts you down.
He is the coffee, hot, steaming, filtered. You have to add stuff to it to make it taste good. Grinds your stomach, makes you jittery, wired, and tense. Bad trip, keeps you up, burns you out.
Coffee and gin don't mix, never do, everybody keeps trying and trying to make it taste good. — Henry Rollins

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress ... so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair. — Sonny Rollins

I enjoy playing clubs. I still enjoy the closeness of the nightclub venue. However, after a certain period of time and after playing around some of the clubs in New YorkI felt that jazz should be presented in a more prestigious atmosphere. — Sonny Rollins

I am interested in my music lasting only while I'm alive. I'm not writing for the future. — Sonny Rollins

I don't cuss in songs. It's too easy. — Henry Rollins

Our real beliefs are generally not to be found at the level of ego. — Peter Rollins

I plan to be a part of Haiti's reconstruction and future. — Henry Rollins

I am well protected Too locked up Inside myself To get free — Henry Rollins

In blues music, there's a lot of borrowing, so it's often difficult to identify the originator of a song. — Henry Rollins

Desperation is the secret to my steady employment. I am not interested in downtime. I really like to keep working all the time and I always feel like I'm in the mail room of life; working up. — Henry Rollins

It wasn't until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can't be as bad as that workout. — Henry Rollins

In my bright, utopian future world, they will hand out college educations like cups of water at the end of the L.A. Marathon. — Henry Rollins

We city dwellers, we residents of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, are for the most part urbanized to some extent. We know deadlines, start times and traffic. — Henry Rollins

I beg young people to travel ... — Henry Rollins

If you listen to 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' by Gil Scott-Heron, that album is dripping with rage. — Henry Rollins

People that you thought were your friends give you shit about working hard. All I know is that we play hard and a lot of this shit is not fun. Playing is great but the way we live is not the life of a rockstar. — Henry Rollins

I wonder what it's like to be from a state that is spread across a few islands way out in the Pacific Ocean, only added to the United States in 1959. Not only that but to be the birthplace of America's first black president? Pretty cool, I bet. — Henry Rollins

Whether I will be remembered at all, I really don't get to choose, unless I shoot someone famous. It's not really anything I have much control over. — Henry Rollins

I'm actually on the Twitter like all those crazy young kids are, and if I'm going to do an in-store appearance or I post something on my website, I tweet these followers, a word I don't like so much, and over 50,000 people go, like, 'Okay, I got it.' — Henry Rollins

The more you own, the more it owns you. — Henry Rollins

I am the flying saucer man from another world trapped on yours until they come to rescue me. One day the saucer will land. Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane will open the hatch and tell me to get in before someone tries to blow up the ship. I'll just ask what took them so long. Within seconds we'll be out of here. — Henry Rollins

I'm constantly around people that talk a lot but say nothing. A sad case. — Henry Rollins

Yeah I have an attitude. You weren't subjected to what I was subjected to, so don't try to tell me how I am. — Steven Blush

Throughout history, knowledge rises and falls, ebbs and flows. What once was known is forgotten again, lost in time, sometimes for centuries, only to be rediscovered ages later. — James Rollins

If there was a god, he wouldn't let a guy walk right up and shoot you in the face now would he? That's right, now you get the picture. Truth burns doesn't it? — Henry Rollins

I wonder how Colin Powell sleeps at night. I would like to have a word with him because he lied. He lied. He lied to me. He lied to my face through the camera at the U.N. — Henry Rollins

I think that I'm running from something I heard on the radio That everybody's working for the weekend When does the weekend start? What comes at the end of the week? The end? Picture a tired dog chasing its tail — Henry Rollins

When I read that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had disappeared - a state-of-the-art Boeing 777, said to be an incredibly safe way to travel - I waited patiently for the chance to learn what happened. — Henry Rollins

It is natural for us to think that our present discontent arises as a result of something we currently do not have. We imagine there might be a way of abolishing the feeling if only we had the money, fame, job, or health that currently evades us. But people from all walks of life seem to experience the same kind of dissatisfaction that we do, even when they have the very things we believe would make our lives whole. And on the occasions when we gain the thing we believe will make us happy, we find that the satisfaction we experience is at best partial and at worst utterly unfulfilling. — Peter Rollins

As to the strangest claim in the novel: that only 10 percent of the cells in our body are human (and the rest are bacteria and parasites). This is true! There is a wonderful book exploring this topic that is as horrific as it is humorous, Human Wildlife by Dr. Robert Buckman. — James Rollins

Each year, every city in the world that can should have a multiday festival. More people meeting each other, digging new types of music, new foods, new ideas. You want to stop having so many wars? This could be a step in the right direction. — Henry Rollins

I think Americans suffer for their lack of travel, awareness of the world. It has horribly warped our sense of place in the scheme of things. — Henry Rollins

Music keeps you young. Having music in your life keeps you open to things. — Henry Rollins

There are a thousand paths into the future, forks after forks in the road ahead. Who knows, if one road closes, maybe another opens in another universe . . . and your soul, your consciousness, leaps over to continue that journey ever forward, always finding the right path. — James Rollins

There is nothing like being told to go fuck yourself by the same person who was, only days before, praying on your behalf. — Henry Rollins

Not only this, but churches are ideological in that they create their own constellation of beliefs and practices that tell their congregants how to think and behave. A denomination, for instance, will offer dogmas, doctrines, and rituals that to a greater or lesser extent let everyone know how to interact with the world. — Peter Rollins

I would like to get out to the region in the Caspian sea. I would like to go there. I would like to get to Darfur. I would like to get to Khartoum in Northern Sudan. I would like to get to Zimbabwe. I would like to go back to North Korea, if I could. I would like to go to Yemen. I would like to get to Kashmir. Most of those destinations I will get to. — Henry Rollins

Your commander would never lie to you. That's the vice president's job. — Henry Rollins

I really enjoy the lattitude I have with being a private citizen. I can get a lot done. I am good with that. — Henry Rollins

They're all over me I smell their beer breath mixed with my sweat I can't answer all the questions, I can barely think straight Now I'm alone in the room To be hard you must be alone To withstand this shit you must be hard The logic works itself out right in front you Be alone as much as you can If you want to hit like a ton of fire You have to get to the essential number One — Henry Rollins

Luckily for me, I genuinely like my audience. They really are a good bunch. — Henry Rollins

Never trust those who would be your shield. They feed on your ignorance and darkness. It is best to look at things directly and be unafraid. — James Rollins

It is our destiny to be born beautiful into an ugly age. — Henry Rollins

I believe in North, South, East, West, The seasons, life and death, geography. That which is provable, absolute and most of all, functional. I believe in things that can kill me. — Henry Rollins

The bible saw that can get a lot of people killed, so let's try and steer people away from that. I am not an expert on the bible. I am just saying. — Henry Rollins

The month of November makes me feel that life is passing more quickly. In an effort to slow it down, I try to fill the hours more meaningfully. — Henry Rollins

It's hard to get along with people. As much as you try to like them and accept them as individuals, it becomes difficult because they keep getting out of line and wasting your time. — Henry Rollins

Every day for a week, sitting in my idling car, saying goodbye without saying anything at all - the touch of his hand, his forehead pressed to mine, the way he brushed my hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ear. And still, he hadn't kissed me. Not once. Nothing but that brief brush of his lips. I was beginning to go a little crazy. — Emme Rollins

I think the U.K. is an amazing place and has been extremely good to me. Some of my favorite and most-listened-to bands are from England. I have met many good people there and have been in front of some of the most loyal audiences I have ever encountered. — Henry Rollins

I'd like to talk to Arnold Schwarzenegger, 'cause I live in California and I just want to see that canned, chemical filled body in my office. — Henry Rollins

I will never be able to pound words into lines
To match the velocity of your presence — Henry Rollins

I am an employment hyena. I am happy to make a meal of what the lions leave behind. — Henry Rollins

Almost all human who can form a sentence will eventually let you in on the fact that their lives are very difficult and sometimes very hard to manage. — Henry Rollins

It is very difficult to tell Americans that they can't do something. — Henry Rollins

Break from self rejection, try some introspection. — Henry Rollins

You know, we are one nation under a god. Yes, you were right. An angry, crack slinging god who decorates with bullets and spent condoms. — Henry Rollins

We Americans look funny when we're in France because we don't travel, we are fairly un-cultured whereas Europeans go to Africa all the time because it's right there. — Henry Rollins

Oh... It's a thing. — James Rollins

The guy who shot him had quite a temper. Homicide had always made sense to him. He would say that there wasn't a problem in the world that couldn't be solved by shooting someone in the face. You just had to find the right person. Hell, you didn't even need to do that. Sometimes just shooting the person next to him was enough. — Henry Rollins

Humans are pretty crafty but will fold quickly in severe cold. — Henry Rollins

I think we are in fact, losing free speech. We don't seem to care though. Many of us don't seem to notice. We will have to do a lot of work to bring back the American way to America. — Henry Rollins

Human beings should not be reduced to a state to where they almost get into a fight over a small bar of soap. — Henry Rollins

'Duck Dynasty' is a ridiculous show, and long may it wave. America and democracy will endure. They've seen a lot worse. — Henry Rollins

What makes me uncomfortable about [Barack] Obama is what makes me uncomfortable about any young politician who has not yet been bloodied inside the Beltway. — Henry Rollins

August in sub-Saharan Los Angeles is one of the great and awful tests of one's endurance, sanity and stamina. — Henry Rollins

I think in rural settings, people have a different appreciation for animals than might the city dweller. In parts of India where poisonous snake bite is common, people have a much different value system. I live in a city. I'm not thinking about wolves, lions, etc. — Henry Rollins

I'm packed with broken glass and memories and it all hurts. — Henry Rollins

I wonder if it is Australia's great distance from more populated land masses that allows its inhabitants to be left to their own devices, to be incredibly creative and, at times, to be wonderfully weird. — Henry Rollins

Literally thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the NFL by retired players, many of whom say that information on brain injury in football was withheld from them. — Henry Rollins

For me, speaking to anyone - on a stage, in an elevator - I am looking for impact and connection. The same goes for writing. — Henry Rollins

Texas is a hotbed of insanely good bands and musicians. — Henry Rollins

It is high time Americans grew accustomed to our traditions. — James Rollins

For a long time, when I was very young, I went to go see arena rock bands. I was 16, and it was all I could get in to see, legally. And I saw Led Zeppelin and Ted Nugent and Van Halen and all that. — Henry Rollins

Jesper knocked his head against the hull and cast his eyes heavenward. 'Fine. But if Pekka Rollins kills us all, I'm going to get Wylan's ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost. — Leigh Bardugo

More than 30 years ago, in Washington, D.C., I secured a copy of a single by a Los Angeles band called The Bags. The two-song 7-inch, released on Dangerhouse, had a girl on the cover who looked right at you with huge eyes. The songs, 'Survive' and 'Babylonian Gorgon,' were great and made many of my mix tapes. — Henry Rollins

It's not lost on me that everyone dies, but some people have a kind of immortality about them, and you can't imagine that they will ever be gone. — Henry Rollins

Wringin' your hands only stops you from rollin' up your sleeves. — James Rollins

Love heals scars love left — Henry Rollins

Tesla once stated, instinct is something which transcends knowledge. "Anton, — James Rollins

If it's a man's world, as they say, then men: your world is a poorly run carnage fest. — Henry Rollins

We Californians can watch the Weather Channel for images of winter's brutality unleashed upon our fellow Americans and thank our lucky stars we don't have to contend with it. — Henry Rollins

I think to write fiction you have to have a powerful need/desire to connect. I can't. Wanting to and not being able to has lead to a lot of misery in my life. — Henry Rollins

It's hard to judge literary merit. — Henry Rollins

When Black Flag and DOA and all those bands were touring in the early 80s, it was kind of a forest and you just kind of got your way through it. Now it's like a six lane highway with Starbucks every twenty meters. That's just civilization. — Henry Rollins

When someone is always looking over their shoulder, they're more likely to trip. — James Rollins

You must never lower yourself to being a person you don't like. — Henry Rollins

I can deal with people who watch me on stage but I am not good in communicating with people any other way than through my work. — Henry Rollins