Trent Reznor Quotes Page 2

“I thought I'd reached the bottom a few times, but then I'd realise there was another 30 floors of despair below that.”

“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 watch people, friends of mine, and see how they portray themselves online and I find interesting that it's kind of a hyper-real version of yourself, how you'd like to be seen, in a way.”

“I would love to be looked at some day – and I'm not ever saying I'm at this level – but I'd love to be mentioned in the same breath as a Bowie or an Eno. Those are the people that I admire artistically, their career trajectory, the integrity throughout their career, the bravery of their career.”

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

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

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

“I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think music should be free.”

“If I go onstage, I want to give people everything they want and more. I'll wash their car for them on their way out.”

“If there used to be 100 people at a major working on a record, now there are 18, but they're the good ones. There's a lean, mean hunger.”

“In my nothing, you were everything, to me.”

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

“It probably wasn't until Nine Inch Nails played the first Lollapalooza that I actually went to a festival.”

“It's a humbling thing, having kids. One of my sons came to rehearsals, and now he says Daddy's job is 'go play loud music'.”

“It's not like I ride a broom into interviews. I don't hang upside down with a cape on.”

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

“Live interaction with a crowd is a cathartic, spiritual kind of exchange, and it's intensified at a festival.”

“My advice today, to established acts and new-coming acts, is the same advice I'd give to myself: pause for a minute, and really think about 'What is your goal? Where do you see yourself?'”

“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.”

“Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is, 'Oh, I'm on stage playing a song,' because you're daydreaming about something else, you're on autopilot. You have to fight that.”

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

“The reality is that people think it's okay to steal music.”

“This isn't meant to last. This is for right now.”

“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.”

“When I first played 'Wolfenstein 3D', it blew my mind. It had a big impact on me.”

“When I was 25, people used to say to me that having kids would change you, and I'd roll my eyes.”

“When I was growing up, rock & roll helped give me my sense of identity, but I had to search for it.”

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

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

“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.”