Daron Malakian

“I don't think when I'm doing music. Things just happen. I've even taken my clothes off while performing. But then I'm so shy that I can't even take my clothes off in the dressing room, even though it's just the other guys in the band in here with me. It's really weird.”

“Music is an emotion, and I put it out there.”

“You know, even U2 took a little time off, and then they came back with a new sound.”

“I don't ever put down bands.”

“In the Middle East in the summertime, to keep cool, a lot of people sleep on the rooftops.”

“People's attention spans don't run too long these days.”

“I just think religion is something... It could be a beautiful thing for the individual, but when it becomes organized, that's when religion starts taking a kind of ugly turn to me.”

“I am depressed sometimes, but it's not what keeps me at home or focused on work.”

“A lot of MTV's programming is hip-hop based, and the messages are usually all about bling bling. A lot of hip-hop artists sing about stuff that's more important, but they seldom get heard. The ones who get heard are the ones saying, 'Think about yourself. Make your money. It's all you. Everybody have a good time and party.'”

“In Glendale, where I live, there's a street called Broadway. The bottoms of the light posts have swastikas on them.”

“Music is pretty much all I do.”

“I'll be honest with you: politically, I have no issue with people, but my beef sometimes is with religion at the end of the day.”

“Basically I write songs, and I need for there to be a home for these songs.”

“A lot of times, I don't feel responsible for the songs myself. But that's my job or my place in life: to keep my search and catch the ideas before they pass me by.”

“Politicians use religion, and they get their troops riled up with religion.”

“In 'Kill Rock n' Roll,' the choruses came about at the moment I was listening to a lot of the Supremes, and if you listen to that part, you can hear a melody and a harmony there that's not too far away from what the Supremes would probably be doing, but there's heavy guitars in the back.”

“There's no rule that says you have to make records constantly, like clockwork, to continue being who you are.”

“I always want to grow and top myself.”

“My dad is my biggest influence on me as a musician, even though he's not a musician.”

“If I was money-motivated, I wouldn't have joined a rock band with three other Armenian guys.”