I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.

I believe that if the Tribune company ever tries to close down Wrigley Field that you will have a protest from every corner of the globe.

If practice makes perfect, and no one's perfect, then why practice?

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.

I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan.

I think a spiritual journey is not so much a journey of discovery. It's a journey of recovery. It's a journey of uncovering your own inner nature. It's already there.

Great music completely obliterates any conceptions of genre.

I was part of a generation that changed the world - and it was taken over by poseurs.

Saturn Return is just the return of your planets to their original position.

Compliments and criticism are all ultimately based on some form of projection.

Where is this great love for rock and roll that existed for 50 or 60 years?

You say that money doesn't bring happiness... but you have them... don't ya?If they don't bring happiness give them to average class and the result will be called "Bringing happiness!

The truth of the world

But I am tired of everyone being gone, and I am tired of everything that has tired me out for the last five years of my life.

One of the dreariest spots on life's road is the point of conviction that nothing will ever again happen to you.

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

The king's might is greater than human, and his arm is very long.

Let others lead small lives, but not you

Fame is like getting across the street. It's like, if there's nothing to be across the street for, it's a pointless destination.

People can think whatever they think, but that's my strength to go forward.

The Gods occupy the loftiest regions, men the lowest, the demons the middle region...They have immortality of body, but passions of the mind in common with men.