Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I had to come to terms about becoming an addict, which, for a long time, I lied to myself about the status of until I couldn't lie any more, 'cause I was either going to die or get better. "

Related Quotes:

" My life has been many examples of shortsighted goals that I thought would fix things. You know, if there's something broken inside me, if there's a hole in there, I thought: If I could just write a good song someday, then I'd be OK. You know, if I could just be on stage in front of people I'd never seen before and be validated by them. "

Trent Reznor

People

Song

Life

" 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. "

" In Nine Inch Nails, I've been the guy calling the shots since inception. I'd gotten used to that. "

" I think the reason I was 23 before I ever wrote a song was that I was afraid of testing myself. What would I do if I discovered I didn't have anything to say? "

" I've learned to recognize, a lot of it forced through the process of recovery, that I'm wired wrong in certain ways; the chemical balance of my brain is off in terms of depression a little bit. "

" I'd never want to be Gene Simmons, an old man who puts on makeup to entertain kids, like a clown going to work. "

" The first set of lyrics for the first songs I ever wrote, which are the ones on 'Pretty Hate Machine,' came from private journal entries that I realized I was writing in lyric form. "

" Now U2's not my favorite band, but I do respect them, and in the same way I respect Bowie: They change without fear of change. "

" The band Grizzly Bear, I think they're excellent. There's a beauty and a musicality there that I wish would have been in vogue in the late '80s, when I was forming bands. "

" I'm not Prince or Rivers Cuomo, who brags about having hundreds of great songs. "

" My music, I hope, takes 100% of your concentration. I know how to do that. "

" I've watched with a kind of wary eye how gaming has progressed. I was there at the beginning with Pong in the arcade, and a lot of my great childhood memories were around a 'Tempest' machine. "

" A lot of what I've done as Nine Inch Nails has been governed by fear. I was trying to keep the songs in a framework that was tough, and I learnt a lot from Jesus and Mary Chain about how to bury nice pop songs in unlistenable noise - the idea being if you can get behind that wall, you find there's a pearl inside. "

" When I'm on stage, the songs that we've chosen to play from the back catalog are things that still resonate with me, and matter to me. And the songs that I couldn't be a part of, we don't play anymore. "

Trent Reznor

Matter

Back

" You're standing onstage in a sold-out arena with people singing your music, and you feel like the loneliest person in the world. Because here's a party that, essentially, it's for you. And you still somehow feel like you don't belong there. Those people all have their lives and go back home. "

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

Trent Reznor

Matter

Club

" Self-examination with a close-up mirror in an antiseptic environment is what Nine Inch Nails is based on. "

" When I was growing up, the people who liked the Beatles, I didn't like, so I didn't pay attention to them. "

" I'm a lot less precious than I used to be about putting things out, for better or for worse. 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. "

" The dynamic of a relationship changes when one person gets sober. "

" I've always been into computers. When I was getting out of high school and forming my identity musically, all of it was really coming into the fold, computers and drum machines. It felt like, you know, I'm in the right place at the right time. I liked the collision. "

" I often find myself listening to a record because a lot of people or magazines have told me it's good and I'm supposed to like it, and I try to stay in touch with what's happening and I'm also a fan of music. I find myself trying to like something that I really don't think is that great. "

" I used to buy vinyl. Today, if you do put out a record on a label, traditionally, most people are going to hear it via a leak that happens two weeks - if not two months - before it comes out. There's no real way around that. "

" I was up above it. Now, I'm down in it. "

Trent Reznor

Now

Down

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

" In my nothing, you were everything, to me. "

" I don't have to save rock. I don't even like rock that much. "

Trent Reznor

Much

Even

" The 'Downward Spiral' album was a record all about beating everybody up - and then 'Hurt' was like a coda saying maybe I shouldn't have done that. But to make the song sound impenetrable because I thought it was a little too vulnerable, I tried to layer it in noise. "

" When I return to the writing process after being away from it for a while, the first part of it always is being honest with myself: What am I into right now? Is it rock bands and guitars, is it noise, is it dance beats and electronics? Is it space, is it clutter? "

" In 2010, aside from that niche of music that I have no interest in - Black Eyed Peas territory, disposable pop stuff - there's almost an incentive to go back to making music as adventurous and groundbreaking as you can, because nobody gets a big hit anymore. "