Quotes

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

I'm not well-read, but when I read, I read well.

I'm not a death rocker, and I don't wear black.

I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.

I think people who glamorize drugs are f**king *ssholes and if there's hell they'll go there.

[To 'Weird Al" Yankovic', when asked for permission to do a parody of "Smells Like Teen Spirit"] "It isn't going to be about food, is it?".

"I stared into his eyes and told him that I thought he was a respectable human. I did tell him straight out that I think his band still sucks." - on his encounter with Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder.

I'm not gay, but I wish I was just to piss off the homophobes.

If I went to jail, at least I wouldn't have to sign autographs.

The music comes first. Lyrics are second. (When asked how he writes his songs.)

When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band - or at least in a Pixies cover band.

I never wanted to sing. I just wanted to play rhythm guitar - hide in the back and just play.

I didn't know how to deal with success. If there was a Rock Star 101, I would have liked to take it. It might have helped me.

It just so happens that there's a bunch of people that are concerned with what I have to say. I find that frightening at times because I'm just as confused as most people.

[on his Irish ancestry] They came from County Cork, which is a really weird coincidence, because when we toured Ireland, we played in Cork and the entire day I walked around in a daze. I'd never felt more spiritual in my life. It was the weirdest feeling and I have a friend who was with me who could testify to this. I was almost in tears the whole day. Since that tour, which was about two years ago, I've had a sense that I was from Ireland.

None of you will ever know my true intent.

I would like to get rid of the homophobes, racists and sexists in our audience. I know they're out there, and it really bothers me. So at this point I have a request for our fans: If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of a different color, or women, please do this one favor for us... Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records.

[Flipside magazine - May/June 1992] They [Soundgarden] used to be great, they were even better in like 85 when Chris Cornell had a Flock of Seagulls haircut! They were just like the Butthole Surfers, they were amazing.

[Flipside magazine - May/June 1992] Right, we turned down [a tour with] Guns and Roses. That would be a big waste of time. I can't comment on Soundgarden because I know them personally and I really like them a lot, but I have strong feelings towards Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains and bands like that. They're obviously just corporate puppets that are just trying to jump on the alternative bandwagon - and we are being lumped into that category. Those bands have been in the hairspray / cockrock scene for years and all of a sudden they stop washing their hair and start wearing flannel shirts. It doesn't make any sense to me. There are bands moving from L.A. and all over to Seattle and then claim they've lived there all their life so they can get record deals. It really offends me.

I'm a fan of rap music but most of it is so misogynist that I can't even deal with it. I'm really not that much of a fan. I totally respect and love it because it's one of the only original forms of music that's been introduced. But the white man doing rap is just like watching a white man dance. We can't dance, we can't rap.