I'm going to quit music. Then the government of Japan asked me to write a piano concerto - that was an offer I couldn't refuse, so that brought me back to music again.

The past can be changed by the future.

Rock saved me. You can break drums and scream out loud - if you do that in the street you get arrested.

A lot of things inspire me - especially pain.

If you really believe and really make a commitment, anything can happen.

Everything is legit onstage. You can go crazy. I can express my anger. I can cry. Whoa, this is the coolest place!

If I die, I'm going to die onstage.

I wanted to have the strongest band. I was always looking for the strongest characters.

If you get stuck to the committed path then... this wall has to be.. KNOCKED DOWN!!

A girl doesn't notice unfairness until she falls in love

If there are no roads you can walk, break down the walls!

Strong people are those who have been broken so many times, lost many people in life but still have love to give and strength to trust again.

I feel like knowledge is power: If you know how to take care of yourself, you can be a better version of yourself.

When you explain to people what you're trying to do, as opposed to just making demands or delegating tasks, you can build instant trust, even if it's just for that short time you're on the phone.

A man's moral worth is not measured by what his religious beliefs are but rather by what emotional impulses he has received from Nature during his lifetime.

Art is really a battle.

We do not live in a revolutionary time. People are not prepared to contest power.

When I think about a character, it does start with the shoes: What kind would she wear? How would she walk in them?

Her beauty cannot be measured with standards of a colonized mind

Falling in love with another man is like falling into a vast vat of yourself. For some men this is ultimately nourishing, for others . . . it is drowning.

Thomas Jefferson was a real poet. He was slick with that 'pursuit' of happiness because the 'pursuit' puts it back on you.