John Rzeznik
I made a deadline for myself that if I wasn't earning a living being a musician by 'A Boy Named Goo,' I was going to get back to school, get a degree, and go on with my life - and enjoy the memories I had.
Too many rockers put on the leather pants and shirt first. But if you write good songs, the pants and shirt will follow.
I think we'd sold a couple hundred records with our first album, maybe 1,000 at the most.
I have this morbid fascination with being completely alienated from everybody, and a lot of the time I really do feel that way.
It's nice to see bands you could see at a bar finally get a chance.
We started the band when I was about 19 or 20. At that age, it would have been kind of hard to imagine a lot of the stuff that I've written. We were playing garage rock. I wanted to dash out three chords and scream. But if you do that for 20 years, what's the point?
If you go back and listen to the album 'Name' was on, there were a lot of garage songs on it.
I've taken a lot of crap. That's just the way life is. There are going to be writers who like you and writers who despise you.
I got really sick of playing just, like, 'Bop-bop-bop-bada-bop-bop-bada-rapa-pah.' Just playing that 190-beats-per-minute punk-rock songs, I didn't feel it anymore. And I always loved melody - when you looked back on those early records, there's always a hook buried in there somewhere.
It's better to have a pocket full of regrets than to never have lived.Collection: Regret
Whenever I get upset, I remember that it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4 to stick up your middle finger.Collection: Upset
If Life hands you a lemon, throw it at someoneCollection: Hands
With every decision you make in your life, you're going to have some regrets about the way it goes. You just have to chose which set of regrets you can live with the best, and try to minimize the amount of regrets you have.Collection: Regret
I really believe that women have much easier access to their souls than men do. Because as men we're taught to wear masks, to drown out our emotions in competition and making money. Now women are being forced to do that too. But I admire their capacity to bear their spirituality so much more deeply than men.Collection: Believe
When I was 18, there were 50 people that I called my friends. Today, there are only three, but I'm glad to have those three. If you have three people that you can really call your friends, then you truly have it made.Collection: People
When I'm around people who are incredibly passionate about what they're doing, people who live their lives in a more selfless way than most people. That's when I'm inspired. That's what I aspire to do and be.Collection: People
Scars are souvenirs you never lose, the past is never far, did you lose yourself somewhere out there, did you get to be a star, and don't it make you sad to know that life is more than who you are?Collection: Stars
I'm amazed that I can sit down, put a guitar in my hands and start playing kind of free style, and it will be four hours later and it will feel like it's been five minutes. I think that adds depth to your being, when something in your life can do that for you. Everybody should try to find something in their life that can do that for them. People find really elaborate self-destructive ways of killing time on this planet. That's why they take drugs or drink, trying to alter their state of being. If you can find something that doesn't destroy you, but deepens your character, you're really lucky.Collection: Character
It's such a thrill to perform live. You never know if you're going to get hit with a bottle or a bra.Collection: Bottles
I just want you to know who I am.Collection: Who I Am
There are a lot of reasons to be hated in pop culture, and being a straight white male is one of them. In fact, I almost hate meCollection: Hate
People who have nothing to say, speak the loudest.Collection: People
Marriage is a really scary thing. I'm excited about it. I know it's not a mistake, it's the absolute right thing to do. I'm really happy about it. I really, really love my fiancee. We're good friends and I think it's going to work. But that's just the point - it's going to take work. It does make me feel vulnerable to be like, wow, I'm committed to this person for the rest of my life.Collection: Mistake
The fear of rejection really kind of stunts your growth as a person. I mean, it's like a friend of mine says, who cares if you fail? Who cares if you fail? It's like babies try to get up and walk all the time and they keep falling down. If we just gave up, we'd all be crawling around.Collection: Baby
I wasn't good at sports and I needed a way to make girls like me.Collection: Girl
If you find yourself perplexed, or perhaps in a quandary, remember that human growth is perpendicular. We grow up and we grow forward, we just have to keep on growing steadily in both ways.Collection: Growing Up
You grew up way too fast and now there's nothing to believe; and re-runs all become our history.Collection: Life
I have this rule: It's like, if you write an amazing, cool song that you mean and then you go put your leather pants on and sing it in front of people; that's OK. But if you put your leather pants on and stand in front of the mirror and go, "Ok, I've got to write a song to fit these pants," then you're in trouble.Collection: Song
Nobody likes to hear a f**king rock star talk about his problemsCollection: Kings
Punk's not dead, it's just at K-Mart.Collection: Punk
The disparity between being a 10-year-old boy playing air guitar, wishing I was a rock star, and the reality of the whole thing is insane. A girl will throw her bra onstage, and I say to myself, if I was the guy that pumped your gas today, would you throw your bra at me?Collection: Girl
Yes, we started out as the Sex Maggots, then became the Goo Goo Dolls, well, and we're still the Goo Goo Dolls!Collection: Sex
I'm a guy so I equate vulnerability with fear. What makes me fearful. I feel vulnerable when I release material, my work, to the world, and I have no control over the outcome. Those are very vulnerable moments. I'm getting married on Friday.Collection: Friday
Things just evolve. I sort of have no control over what happens with the songs. Sometimes I'm afraid I might wake up one morning with an entire record of polka songs.Collection: Song
It's liberating to live at home during the week, but on the weekend it's like, Jesus Christ, how much History Channel can one human being watch?Collection: Jesus
I don't write music for critics or hipsters. I write for me.Collection: Hipster
I think we got started like all bands. We wanted to make some noise, hang out, and have some fun. Remember, we're from Buffalo - there isn't really that much to do. When we started we were a cover band and slowly developed our own material.Collection: Fun
I have to let myself be vulnerable in order to have a good marriage. That's something I'm really going to have to work on. A lot of times I'm really guarded because of what I do for a living, what I've done in my life.Collection: Order
I don't like critics; I really don't like them. I think most of them are ignorant and don't have a clue!Collection: Thinking
I work out. I try to work out every day. That keeps me in the moment, which is great. Keeps my head from thinking about the future and the past too much. I love working out. That really helps me a lot.Collection: Past
I think the work is always personal. This album differs. It seems to be a lot more positive. It seems to have a certain amount of optimism about it.Collection: Thinking
I'm a guy so I equate vulnerability with fear.Collection: Guy