As a journalist, I'm not supposed to be the subject, but as an author, I'm fair game - another ingredient in the media soup.

Just as not all popular albums are wonderful, not all wonderful albums are popular.

You didn't have to be a huge rock star; you just had to do well enough to continue doing what you wanted to do. It wasn't about hitting the jackpot, it was about sustainability.

Bon Jovi's trick is to use heavy-metal chords and still sound absolutely safe. Rock & roll used to be rebellion disguised as commercialism; now so much of it is commercialism disguised as rebellion.

Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.

I really believe in the power of music - and I mean literally the power of musical tones - to rearrange the way you can think.

Naturally, no one knows more about music than musicians. They talk about their own work all the time, but they rarely get to talk about other people's music.

There's no glamour in Nirvana, no glamour at all, in fact.

There's a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.

Nine Inch Nails' sound is dominated by clanging synths and sardonic, shrieking vocals.

I have this theory, bands with enigmatic lyrics attract crazies.

I need this wild life, this freedom.

I am far more fearful of the USA government than I am of North Korea.

A wrong mind-set is like bad soil that restricts a plant’s growth. Similarly, limiting beliefs about ‘what we deserve’ hinder our growth. They stop us from being abundant in every area of our life.

When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.

I was attempting to write the story of my life. It wasn't so much about plot. It was much more about character.

And Boucard desisted, probably because like everyone else he was deeply impressed by this man who had laid all ghosts, who had lost all shadows, and who stared you in the eyes with cold serenity.

I fought Sugar [Ray Robinson] so many times that I'm lucky I didn't get diabetes

The first river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. It bubbles up in pools and eddies to remind you who you are.

There is no praise in being upright, where no one can, or tries to corrupt you.

Leaving the people and places you love, is a reminder of the impermanence of this life. And the permanence of the next.