I was trying to be this person who is cool, eternally rocking.
In the beginning, though, I have to admit that I did have a chip on my shoulder. I did want to prove everyone wrong. But after I went through the process and came out the other side, it wasn’t about anyone else.
Injuries are nothing to be ashamed about.
Beware of those angels with their wings glued on.
There’s a lot of UFO sightings in New Orleans, which isn’t really too surprising. There’s a lotta crazy people there. The people there lack the intelligence to know what they are seeing, so that’s why the UFO’s go there.
I had such a big mouth for so long that it doesn’t faze anybody anymore.
I’m sort of like a lame, single guy in a red sports car.
In a weird kind of way, music has afforded me an idealism and perfectionism that I could never attain as me.
Most people don’t know that wrestling came out of the circus.
These days you’re not just competing with the tedium, you’re competing with the cellphone.
Ultimately, running a band is about the relationships you have with people.
I know how stupid people can be. I’ve played in front of 5,000 people that bought a ticket to my concert, and some guy who’s bought a ticket decides he’s going to throw a bottle at my head. That’s a simple act of stupidity. That’s not even defiance.
You have to keep adapting to the times. If you kind of go with it, it can kind of fun.
The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That’s what critics can’t put their finger on.
The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.
It makes me crazy to think that somebody might attack my city or any other city.
If there was a simple ethic for the band, it was that we want to be able to do whatever we want to do.
I reached a point in my life where I felt like I was living through some old character.
Smashing Pumpkins has never been a band about hit songs.
What bothers me is when music becomes entertainment. Of course, music is supposed to be entertaining, but go back to any period of time – music had a cultural significance on different levels, whether it was folk music, it was the news of the village, or it had to do with the rites of passage.