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“The thing that strikes me as strange is that as more and more possibilities present themselves, the more records sound alike, and I think that’s wrong. Technology is supposed to be a tool that widens the spectrum to make more possibilities available, but … it is working negatively."

“The way they deliver a record is with some seminude chicks. The music becomes like elevator background music. Andy Warhol’s little dream’s come true. Everybody’s a star for fifteen minutes."

—on the MTV generation

“I’d say that nearly every rock ’n’ roll band spends at least fifty percent of their time in the studio trying to dirty up the sound—in other words, trying to fight the technology … Everybody knows that the best rock ’n’ roll records were made with one mike in a tiny room."

TIME

“What is life but playing with time?"

“Maybe age does matter, in that you consider time a different way. You start to use it more, rather than clambering all over it and using it as scaffolding." (SEE ALSO AGING)

“I’m timeless now, I’m beyond time."

“The end of the century is always weird because people go berserk about the zeros. For some reason there’s a mass psychosis. In the 1890s they were mad, too, you know."

“I’m sixty, am I? I knew it was one of those with a zero on the end."

“Have you noticed that Einstein was right, that time is relative?"

TRAVELING

“The first thing you need to do with a hotel room is to stop it looking like a hotel room. It’s a ministage, right? My big luxury is carrying a big stereo—about three cases full of sound. I couldn’t live without that cushion of sound."

“I like to see the way the world’s going round."

TROUBLE

“The mundane has never interested me particularly."

“It’s not that I look for trouble. It’s more an electromagnetic thing. I seem to attract it. I’m waiting for the next hit."

TRUTH

“The only way I’ve ever been able to survive any of this crap is by saying, ‘Anything you put on your front page, I can top it.’ Because I’ll give you the real lowdown, which is far more interesting."

“I don’t want anybody to think it’s worth snooping around in my backyard thinking they’re gonna pick up anything that they wouldn’t learn by asking me."

“I’d rather look people in the eye when I’m talking to them. Unless it’s an important message, like, ‘Get the hell out of there, the cops are coming.’ ”

“I was kind of forced into the position of honesty because they went through my garbage cans and it was all over the front pages."

“I’ve got nothing to hide. Nothing’s a state secret with me."

“I have nothing to hide. I found that’s the best way to get along with everybody."

“Hunter S. Thompson."

—when asked to name his favorite fictional

hero—citing the “truth-telling” journalist

“The press turn you into what they want you to be, and as far as the people are concerned, that’s what you are."

“My big mouth put me on the spot many times. But I know at times there are things that need to be said, it doesn’t matter where it is and who it’s said to. Sometimes I can hear myself talking and saying, ‘You should keep your mouth shut, boy, and just get an easy ride here,’ but meanwhile I can hear my voice booming around the room, saying, ‘No way!’ Half of me is fighting this thing, but it just comes out, you know, this has to be said, and that’s all there is to it. Then I’m a victim of whatever it is I’ve said."

“I got a big mouth—I know."

“I know a couple guys who are born liars and I admire them because it’s artistry, almost. But as a means of getting along in the world, it’s just destructive."

“The overblown and the pretentious—you can kill me with that shit."

“It is hard to tell people how you feel sometimes, but it’s only how you feel and it’s only one opinion. It doesn’t have to kill him."

“How could I now possibly remember the lie I told somebody a month ago?"

—in response to a comment

about his truthfulness

“When I don’t know the truth."

—when asked on what occasion he lies

VIDEO

“I think there’s a confusion with videos and