Rob Sheffield
Love dies in many different ways, and it's natural for the grass to seem greener on the other side. But it's not a competition; there's plenty of pain to go around.Collection: Pain
I didn't know what I was. I didn't have a noun.Collection: Nouns
I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language.Collection: Voice
Rock stars did not invent burning out. They just do it louder.Collection: Stars
The hungry feeling and the lonely feeling merged until it was hard to tell them apart.Collection: Lonely
Singing what's in your heart? Naming the things you love and loathe? You can get hurt that way. Hell, you will get hurt that way. But you'll get hurt trying to hide away in all that silence and leave your life unsung. There's no future without tears. Are you really setting your hopes on not getting hurt at all? You think that's an option? You clearly aren't listening to enough Morrissey songs.Collection: Song
A song nobody likes is a sad thing. But a love song nobody likes is hardly a thing at all.Collection: Song
...some people aren't worth the trouble of being kind to, because they have neither the brains nor the power to make something for themselves out of your kindness.Collection: Kindness
The Stones suggested that if you dabble in decadence, you could turn into a devil-worshipping junkie. Paul McCartney suggested that if you mess around with girl worship, you could turn into a husband. So Paul was a lot scarier.Collection: Girl
Monogamous musicians are like vegan hockey players.Collection: Hockey
Girls take up a lot of room. I had a lot of room for this one.Collection: Girl
It was like trying to break up with the color orange, or Wednesday, or silent e. It was the most passionate and tumultuous relationship I'd ever known.Collection: Color
It was bewildering and humbling to keep discovering how many brave things people can fail to talk themselves out of doing.Collection: People
I was the only kid at Camp Don Bosco who would admit he was an alter boy back home, so I served two masses a day all summer. But I loved the cassock and surplice, ringing the bells, lighting the candles - it was like being a glamrock roadie for God.Collection: Summer
The way I pictured it, all this grief would be like a winter night when you're standing outside. You'll warm up once you get used to the cold. Except after you've been out there for awhile, you feel the warmth draining out of you and you realize the opposite is happening; you're getting colder and colder, as the body heat you brought outside with you seeps out of your skin. Instead of getting used to it, you get weaker the longer you endure it.Collection: Grief
Nothing connects to the moment like music. I count the music to bring me back, or more precisely, to bring her forward.Collection: Moments
Tonight, I feel like my whole body is made out of memories. I'm a mix-tape, a cassette that's been rewound so many times you can hear the fingerprints smudged on the tape.Collection: Memories
Falling in love with Renee was not the kind of thing you walk away from in one piece. I had no chance. She put a hitch in my git-a-long.Collection: Falling In Love
Morrissey was my Mrs. Garrett, the house mother from the Facts of Life, a soothing adult figure giving me words of wisdom.Collection: Mother
I was totally clueless about social interaction, and completely scared of girls. All I knew was that music was going to make girls fall in love with me.Collection: Girl
Like any teenager who reads The Great Gatsby, probably, I was madly in love with the teacher who had opened it up for me.Collection: Teacher
It’s the same with people who say, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ Even people who say this must realize that the exact opposite is true. What doesn’t kill you maims you, cripples you, leaves you weak, makes you whiny and full of yourself at the same time. The more pain, the more pompous you get. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you incredibly annoying.Collection: Pain
The Word 'Repulse': I hate this word. I believe 'repel' is a perfectly good word, and 'repulsion' is the noun, as well as the title of an excellent Dinosaur Jr. song. A compulsion compels you; an impulse impels you. Nobody ever says 'compulse' or 'impulse' as a verb. So why would you ever say 'repulse'? This word haunts me in my sleep, like a silver dagger dancing before my eyes. Renee looked it up and I was wrong. But I still kind of think I'm right.Collection: Song
I'd shut the whole world down just to tell you.Collection: World
The dilemma of the eighth-grade dance is that boys and girls use music in different ways. Girls enjoy music they can dance to, music with strong vocals and catchy melodies. Boys, on the other hand, enjoy music they can improve by making up filthy new lyrics.Collection: Girl