Maynard James Keenan Quotations

Once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer.

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.

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Everything revolves around the music when it comes to Tool.

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

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.

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.

I've always had an affinity for growing things.

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

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

I think everything Joni Mitchell did for music was big.

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

The record company's worst fear is that you'll fall in love or get rich.

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

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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

A lot of people into Tool, for some reason, are not interested in humor.

Yeah, because I think it's more important just to inspire people to wake up one day and pick up a book and start feeling it out for themselves.

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

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

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

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

Prescott National Forest is right on the edge of my home in Arizona.

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.

One of the challenges we set up for 'Puscifer' was to come up with a core identity and see how far we can push it.

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

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

You know, I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell.

Actually I never did stand up. I'm not that funny.

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

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

Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.

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

I think that every collective that you witness occurring on a stage, it's not about any one of the individuals. There's something that's happened that's kind of put all that stuff together into a much bigger result ... some alchemy.

Standing above the crowd, He had a voice so strong and loud And I swallowed his façade 'cause I'm so Eager to identify with Someone above the ground, Someone who seemed to feel the same, Someone prepared to lead the way, with Someone who would die for me.

I feel like there's no real innovation in having some music. It's more just unique personalities and unique expressions, and you being able to tell your story.

Do unto others what has been done to you,

Sure, I love fairy tales.

Knuckle deep inside the borderline. This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to. Relax. Slip away.

Novell has the necessary resources to be a much more profitable enterprise but it currently lacks the vision, strategy and execution to produce respectable returns.

It's in my blood. My great-grandfather made wine and it's a tradition I want to pass on to my son.

If you want to get your soul to heaven, trust in me. Don't judge or question. You are broken now, but faith can heal you. Just do everything I tell you to do.

Choices always were a problem for you. What you need is someone strong to guide you. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to use you - like me.

It's a purging of sorts. Like, when you're all done doing your laundry and it's fresh and bright, but washing the clothes, you wouldn't want to get in while it's spinning around.

The army influences everything I do. Certainly it teaches you discipline, which is a necessary element of development. I think there's more of a collaborative understanding in the band because of that.

The process that we go through in recording with Tool is very organic, but at the same time it is very thought out. There is a very left-brain process of dissecting what we're doing and drawing from source material; it's very research oriented and esoteric.

I believe that when you go into a gallery or a museum, the most powerful pieces are the ones that don't have the words in the corner that distract you from the larger piece.

Desert, in generally, is a very good place to find yourself. Or lose yourself.

Jesus Christ, why dont you come save my life. Open my eyes and blind me with your light and your lies.

There are people who are like monkeys in a cage just hitting the coke button. They don't really get that for [musicians and artists] to do these things, they have to fund them. They have to have something to pay the rent.

Actors have these delicate appendages called Egos.

Seems like Ive been here before. Seems so familiar. Seems like Im slipping into a dream within a dream.

All I can do is say I smell a rat. I don't know where it is or what kind of rat it is, but as an artist, I can express how. But I couldn't responsibly stand up and tell people which way to go, because then I'm just as guilty as the people who are telling everybody else what to do and where to go.

I feel like with music there's so much ego rooted in expressing your thoughts and your experiences with it.

Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused.

Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What’s the difference?

I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself.

I think there's a reason why wine figures into so many religions. There's something transcendent about it. It's sort of the way that music is more than the sum of its parts. You have all these elements that make up the terroir that wine can communicate.

Finding beauty in the dissonance

I'm not an educated man. I only know what I'm told, and I'm not told that much; I have no frame of reference for how to place things in history be a responsible leader. All I can do is be an artist.

Life feeds on life... feeds on life feeds on life... this is neccesary... this is necessary life feeds on life... feeds on life

I want to find a genie in a bottle that can grant me three wishes. I want to be able to speak, read, write, and understand any language ever written or spoken, just any language throughout the history of man. That would be one of my wishes from the genie, so I would have to put "multilingual" on the resume, should I ever find the genie.

Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.

You can grow grapes in almost any part of the world. You just have to develop your palate enough to realize wine is an expression of the place where you make it. You don't have to take over the world; just be an artist and express your area.

You really should be able to feel the higher power of music and be moved by it, rather than listening to me waffle on and having to explain it.

We are eternal. All this pain is an illusion.

One of my biggest heroes in music has been David Bowie. He's said, `I'm going to be a painter now, or I'm going to do some films,' and his audience is very forgiving, because they understand him as an artist. Whether you agree or like the result, you respect that he's expressing his artistic feelings.

Every now and then, you get people who tend to forget what this country is about, which is a melting pot of races and cultures and freedom of speech.

People get upset and it becomes an excuse to treat other people a certain way,but if you really step back, you realize what you've left behind.

Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion between supposed lovers

It's the role of us to run our government, the government by the people, for the people, and I don't think our government is listening to the people. It's our role as patriots to question them, because we elected them. And if they're not fairly and accurately representing us, it's the job of the people, the patriots, to take their country back.

So crucify the ego, before its far too late To leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical, And you will come to find that we are all one mind Capable of all thats imagined and all conceivable. Just let the light touch you And let the words spill through And let them pass right through Bringing out our hope and reason ... before we pine away.

The trick is to use the drugs once to get there, and maybe spend the next ten years trying to get back there without the drug.

Put a small child in a playpen with an apple and a bunny. If s/he eats the apple and plays with the bunny, s/he's normal;but if s/he eats the bunny and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car. Somewhere along the line we must have been TAUGHT to do the wrong thing.

This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality. Embrace this moment, remember: we are eternal all this pain is an illusion.

Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here

Whenever you try to work through the things that we're trying to work through, that we're addressing, it ends up looking negative. Our goal is nonjudgment, nonfiltered acceptance of everything. So much of our background collectively, especially in the United States, is denying and suppressing and disowning a lot of negativity and the darker areas. You can become swallowed up in it. It's cancerous. The goal should be to define acceptance for everything. To try and consider every aspect. To try to look into the shadows, as well as the light.

Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing.

Life is too short not to create something with every breath we draw.

This sort of behavior is left to the psychotic, dogmatic, fundamentalist believers you see on your TV everyday letting off bombs and killing people in the name of God. Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing.

Today's woman puts on wigs, fake eyelashes, false nails, sixteen pounds of make-up/shadows/blushes/creams, living bras, various pads that would make a linebacker envious, has implants and assorted other surgeries, then complains that she cannot find a 'real' man