Chris Cornell Quotes

I'm not a lyric writer to make statements.

What I enjoy doing is making paintings with lyrics, creating colorful images. I think that's more what entertainment and music should be.

I think that sometimes almost the bigger tragedy in a weird way is all of the future imagined creative projects that could have happened that didn't. I feel the same way about lots of brilliant people who die young, kind of senselessly especially.

There's something about losing friends, particularly young people, where it's not something that you get over. I don't believe there's a healing process.

What do you think Jesus would twitter, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone' or 'Has anyone seen Judas? He was here a minute ago.'

I don't think there are too many rock bands in history that can look at the beginning and middle and ending of themselves and see what I see when I think of Soundgarden. I think from the beginning through the middle and the end it was such a perfect ride and such a perfect legacy to leave.

Children should always feel like the adults are living in this world to nurture them, to take care of them, to protect them from any bad thing that might come.

In the United States, workouts tend to focus on body image and how you look.

For me, it's really all about the brain.

'The Beatles' did whatever they wanted.

They were a collection of influences adapted to songs they wanted to write. George Harrison was instrumental in bringing in Indian music. Paul McCartney was a huge Little Richard fan. John Lennon was into minimalist aggressive rock.

Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth.

We're more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage.

To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven.

When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.

I've had a long career and I want to continue to have a long career.

The way to do that is not to go away.

And if you don't believe the sun will rise, stand alone and greet the coming night in the last remaining light.

I play Texas Hold'em on my Blackberry.

I have amassed a fortune on that. I have almost 30 million dollars from playing. It is unreal.

Due to irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences, I am permanently leaving the band Audioslave. I wish the other three members nothing but the best in all of their future endeavours.

When you're having a conversation with someone who, despite his brilliant medical career, says he's going to produce the film, you think, "How's he gonna do this? Is he insane, or is he really going to pull this off? It might be both." It's really amazing to see someone do what he's done.

I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That's not gone away.

My brother brought home 'At San Quentin' when I was about 7, and we played it over and over again.

If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving.

I'm looking California, And feeling Minnesota...

I don't really go mountain biking per se, like a proper sport.

I'm not usually in a talkative mode.

I think that one of the main privileges of what I do, which I am just starting to learn, is to have the ability to travel all over the world and experience different cultures.

I had to teach myself to let go of the conventional rock way of playing guitar and singing. Some things you wouldn't expect to work, did and some things won't ever work.

I don't care what people think of me or for what reason they think of me. I don't feel like I don't know who I am to the degree that I have to change my hair to create a new me.

I can go from one extreme to another, from playing at the Sydney Opera House on the Songbook tour to shows with Soundgarden at Voodoo Fest, all in a week.

I got in touch with the creative process between the age of 14 and 16, mainly because I was alone so much.

My first favorite band that made music important to me was the Beatles. I was a little kid. I didn't know who was singing what song or who wrote what song.

Sometimes, if a song is written, in essence, to be that stripped down, it's very touchy when you start adding things, because even the smallest thing can have a huge impact. Somebody has to make the decision that there's a better song in there if there's less.

Radio and TV can still push a band, but things need to be shaken up. There is the Internet, but mostly what I see there is little kids on YouTube playing music.

They always say that the entertainment and restaurant industries are the only businesses that don't sink during a depression or a recession. I've done both, and I recommend to anyone who wants to be a rock star, if that doesn't pan out, become a cook.

People don't realize how much fun it is to be depressed.

When you start your first band and it has an impact on the rest of the world you go through a lot with those guys and you become very protective of that legacy.

She gives the night its dreams.

It's great when you play to an audience that knows the words to all your songs, and sings them back to you.

What makes that song, I think, is how stark it is.

I would hope that the future would have an international community that's not just bent on commerce, but that's focused on refugees, of all kinds and from all places. We don't know that won't happen in the U.S. someday. It literally could be a crisis from climate change, or anything. I think there needs to be a global focus on people taking care of people.

A true musician, like Johnny Cash, should be able to walk into a room with nothing but an instrument and capture people's attention for two hours.

I feel like you're not a real musician or entertainer if you can't go into a room, pick up an instrument and entertain people.

An acoustic show is all about you, and any little nuance or mistake is amplified.

Ever since I can remember I’ve had positive and negative fan reviews. And whether it was positive or negative it wasn’t always based in reality or what my perception of the music was. But judging from playing these new songs live and my feelings on the record [Scream] – and it’s a great record – there is definitely an audience for it. Also, I don’t really go to clubs so I don’t know what sounds are made there.

At the end of the day it's the fans who make you who you are.

I used to work in jobs I hated because I needed the money to buy a guitar. I know what it feels like to be depressed. On the other hand, I also know what it feels like to have money, to be successful, to be independent, but I can tell you that money and success never solve your problems.

I think it's important for fans to know that but if I'm doing something that inspires me musically then I think it will inspire someone else too.

If you're an American kid, you can't help but be influenced by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones because they're always on the radio.

If you sold a million records, the only way you could be disappointed is if the guy down the street sold seven million. But you've got to start dodging bullets once you've sold that many records, because everybody wants to kill you. We're not in that position. We can still be very successful and not have to worry about wearing bulletproof vests.

Maybe sincerity is the new punk. But to me, I think I have to connect with something emotionally, on some level, or I don't care about it. And if I don't care about it, then I don't think anyone listening to it will, either.

Be yourself is all that you can do.

If you are trying to think ahead musically, it is not going to help you. It is better to ignore what is happening melodically and just look at the little dots coming at you and the corresponding colors and try to do it at the right time.

Any way that you can get the end result is valid, whatever it takes.