Trent Reznor Quotes

If you have something to say, then say it. Express yourself and break the rules.

I think, fundamentally, music is something inherently people love and need and relate to, and a lot of what's out right now feels like McDonalds. It's quick-fix. You kind of have a stomachache afterwards.

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.

Today's political climate does not allow the luxury of apathy.

I wear this crown of thorns Upon my liar's chair Full of broken thoughts I cannot repair Beneath the stains of time The feelings disappear You are someone else I am still right here What have I become My sweetest friend?

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.

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.'

When I look at people that I would like to feel have been a mentor or an inspiring kind of archetype of what I'd love to see my career eventually be mentioned as a footnote for in the same paragraph, it would be, like, Bowie.

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.

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.

I hated school . . . I freaking hated it. The fact is that it revolved around something you didn't have access to. If you weren't on the football team, if you were in the band, you were a leper. When people say those were the best years of our lives, I want to scream.

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

I really try to put myself in uncomfortable situations. Complacency is my enemy.

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

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.

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

His perfect kingdom of killing, suffering and pain Demands devotion, atrocities done in his name.

I become irritated when I am being written off as aloof or stand-offish when I'm shy and don't know what to say.

I remember everything What have I become? My sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end You could have it all My empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you hurt.

I feel uncomfortable because I'm insecure about who I am.

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

My moral standing is lying down.

Live interaction with a crowd is a cathartic, spiritual kind of exchange, and its intensified at a festival.

God is dead, and no one cares! If there is a hell I'll see you there!

The result of a public that has a very high consumption rate and turnover rate is people listen to more music but spend less time with individual bits of music. It's made me more likely to put things up quickly and treat it more like a magazine instead of a novel.

There's nothing like a stressful day.

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.

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.

I thought Big Sur would be a great break after the tour.

You'd walk down this rickety ladder to this not-very-pretty beach scene; crashing waves, moss-covered rocks, weird ocean life. It was scary. It summed up alot of things in my life, like 'I should be enjoying this, but I'm not.

I've become impossible, holding on to when everything seemed to matter more.

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 whats 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.

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

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

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.

I'll be there for you, as long as it works for me. I play a game, its called insincerity.

Nine Inch Nails was an experiment with me in discipline.

I realized when I was 23 that I had never really tried anything. Schoolwork came easy to me. I learned to play piano effortlessly. I was coasting. I realized that I was afraid to really, really try something, 100 percent, because I had never reached true failure.

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

I'll name check Radiohead on this--they've done a pretty suave marketing plan on this new record. I think generally it's been a pretty cool thing, but what they've done is used those (sales) numbers in a way that they can spin them anyway they want cause you don't know what they are.

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.

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

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

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.

I think the whole aspect of social networking is vulgar and repulsive in a lot of ways.

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

Bow down before the one you serve, you're going to get what you deserve.

I found that when I was putting my own music out, with my Twitter feed as the pure marketing budget, I'm preaching to the choir.

I think there's something strangely musical about noise.

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.

When an instrument fails on stage it mocks you and must be destroyed!