There were a lot of choices to make and I always picked artist. I never once picked doctor, lawyer, firemen or something like that. It was always artist.

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.

Because artists can be extremely eccentric and insane, and unfortunately, the people they hurt the most are the people that are closest to them.

I think the biggest problem working with me would be that I'm an only child, and so I have an internal dialogue that goes on that I just assume you can hear.

And if you don't live, you have nothing to write about.

But then it hasn't really been a focus of our government to make us an educated people.

There were a lot of choices to make and I always picked artist. I never once picked doctor, lawyer, firemen or something like that. It was always artist.

Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.

I would hope they would be our fellow artists, rather than trying to emulate or idolize clowns like us.

We're just four guys and we are enjoying what we're doing with Tool.

There is still a future with music, because people want music.

If you take different mythologies from different cultures, the names may change and the story lines may vary but there is always something in common.

If the education of our kids comes from radio, television, newspapers - if that's where they get most of their knowledge from, and not from the schools, then the powers that be are definitely in charge, because they own all those outlets.

I think everything Joni Mitchell did for music was big.

Adam does most of the work when it comes to videos and he basically does the same as I do with the lyrics. The videos are his visual interpretations of our music.

I can't be a legend yet. I'm not dead.

A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral.

I always knew that I wanted to be creative, that I wanted to create something.

I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes.

Just in general, any government throughout history hasn't really wanted its people to be educated, because then they couldn't control them as easily.

I believe that music is a force in itself. It is there and it needs an outlet, a medium. In a way, we are just the medium.

I'm a lot easier to work with now than I have been in the past, for sure.

Shows are really strange. Sometimes you really don't know what to expect.

A lot of names in America and Europe have their roots in Latin and Greek words. A lot of them go back to archetypes and their stories.

I think the media made Manson, turned him into some larger than life figure and surrounded him with mystery and some shady glamour.

I have the distinction of being called a media whore by Courtney Love.

We're five people, five individuals who came together to create something, to make music and to complete each other musically, to form a perfect circle.

Because as an only child, you have your own little world.

Most religious stories and mythologies have some sort of similar root, some sort of global archetypes.

Everything revolves around the music when it comes to Tool.

Nowadays, you have to sell, like, half a million or a million records just to break even.

I just hope that our fans are people who are inspired by music, and just use our music as a background or inspiration for whatever it is they do.

Music is about listening, the more you play, the more the magic spreads.

I think people in general have neglected to learn about history.

After all, in today's music scene every band seems to steal from other bands.

For me, life is writing and I can do it anywhere. It doesn't matter where I am. I listen. I write. I live.

But you know, I'm the negative-Nancy, curmudgeon, glass-half-empty-with-a-leak-in-it guy - which is basically the fuel that fires me up anyway. Without that, we wouldn't have me.

I'm a pessimist. But I'm a pessimist with a sense of responsibility.

Once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer.

People have to follow their hearts, and if their hearts lead them to Wal-Mart, so be it.

Reading is more of a left-brain process, and listening to music is a right-brain function.

But I'm a hot-blooded Italian by nature. Whatever the situation you present, I'm going to make something out of it.

A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end and if you put several circles over each other then you get a spiral.

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That's just copying what someone else did.

The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

I'm inspired by nature. Other artist's work is important for developing my perception.