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Sometimes it seems the harder you try to hold onto something or someone the more it wants to get away. You feel like some kind of criminal for having felt, for having wanted. For having wanted to be wanted. It confuses you because you think that your feelings were wrong and it makes you feel so small because it’s so hard to keep it inside when you let it out and it doesn’t come back. You’re left so alone that you can’t explain.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I think that one of the hardest things in the world to be is a black male. I mean everyone hates your guts. White men are afraid of you. White women are afraid of you. The cops hate you. The government wants you dead. Your own people want to shoot you for what you got. You just can't get over it. And even if you are able to get over it you're forced to do it on the white guy's terms.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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Capitalism does what it does and money doesn't belong to anybody. It just stays in someone's wallet for a while, then it goes somewhere else. It always goes somewhere and it is always about to go somewhere.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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The most interesting place by far was Afghanistan. Just because it is a place that I cannot see myself living. The hardness of the people and the history of the country is just so completely intense.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I don't hate people - not remotely other than they make you crazy in traffic, but as I get older I kind of see more and more why people do what they do.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I have come to the conclusion that it's a waste of time to have too much pride in anything. Perhaps it's good to have a sense of duty, a jealous zeal to protect or improve, but pride ultimately is only that which stands vulnerable to offense and degradation.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I am a white guy in America with an education, albeit high school, but a pretty good one. Another guy from a different demographic or different ethnicity in America can look at me and say, "You take a lot for granted." Well... okay. I just live in a white male American reality, where I hear you but I don't know if I necessarily read you.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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Pride is not a word or sentiment I can ascribe to anything I have done or do. As far as regret, it is a luxury I can not afford. Anything I did, that was bad or wrong or regretful, I stand accused, I am guilty and I'm ready to serve my time.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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Perfection. I have been waiting all my life to be with you. My heart slams against my ribs when I think of the slaughtered nights I spent all over the world waiting to feel your touch.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I wonder if it is Australia's great distance from more populated land masses that allows its inhabitants to be left to their own devices, to be incredibly creative and, at times, to be wonderfully weird.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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One of the nice things about a favorite pop song is that it's an unconditional truce on judgment and musical snobbery. You like the song because you just do, and there need not be any further criticism.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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Everyone should have the right to go off and do their music or do their books. The people who are in the position to censor they're really not down to reality where that certain artists are coming from.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I think self-reliance and self-responsibility and self-accountability will help you as a parent, a teacher, as a citizen as a friend.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole. I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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You can get what you want. Never sell out. Don't break. Don't weaken. Don't let the kindness of strangers be your salvation, for it is no salvation at all. Unless you sleep alone, you sleep with the enemy. Never come out of the storm. On the other hand, maybe you should. You don't have what it takes to go the hard way. Come out of the cold and sit by the fire. Let them warm you with the smiles and promise of friendship's fortune. Lose your edge. A soft body and chained mind suit you. Chances are you don't have what it takes to walk the frozen trail. Stay home and relax.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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People like Jefferson, Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony and M. L. K. are larger than life to me. I find myself staring at photographs of Lincoln almost in disbelief that he was a man who walked the earth and not merely some fiction writer's creation.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I feel pain everyday of my life. When you see me perform, it's that pain you're seeing coming out. I put all my emotions, all my feelings, and my body on the line. People hurt me, I hurt myself - mentally, physically
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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If the Constitution was a movie, the Preamble would be the trailer, the First Amendment the establishing shot, the 13th the crowd pleaser and the 14th the ultimate hero scene.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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I don't hate the government. I don't think the Second Amendment is being infringed upon.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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As a young person, I was on the road playing music, so I was getting new environments shoved in my face whether I wanted them or not.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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It's hard for me to sympathize with a young person who chooses to go into the military because they know where they're going. I think we need to start depopulating the military.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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Motivation has always been a fascinating factor when considering a touring artist, especially when the years stack up. What keeps one out there year after year?
Henry Rollins Black Flag
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To this day, my haircut is the number two clippers, which I apply to myself every month.
Henry Rollins Black Flag
