John Dolmayan

“System is the best thing that anybody in System will ever do. But we still do other things.”

“Even talking about System kind of bums me out, because I know what our potential is.”

“I question stuff, and I have my own theories on things, and people think I'm an idiot sometimes for it. But I also have a big imagination.”

“I love Eminem. I think he's really innovative. I like the way his syncopation works.”

“We started as a band that struggled; none of us had money, and tried to make it, not because we wanted money but because we had a passion for what we were doing.”

“The fact is I don't write songs, per se; I've written a couple here and there, but that's not my forte.”

“I don't write songs, so I'm not worried about who's going to write the song. I'm just ready. You just give me the canvas so I can paint on it, that's how I look at it.”

“When we were in the middle of the Trump-versus-Biden debacle and attempting to figure out who was gonna continue to lead this country, I lost a ton of followers every time I would post something that was either pro-Trump or pro my opinions one way or the other.”

“I never wanted System to take a hiatus. I think it was a disastrous move for us, because we never reached our peak.”

“If you're a System fan and you gravitate towards the music, you enjoy the music, but you don't necessarily agree with the perceived message, well, where do you go? If you think that Serj is the mouthpiece of the band, which he is, as far as vocally, but not necessarily for ideology, then you have nowhere to go.”

“I don't wanna see high unemployment levels.”

“I personally don't like breaks I like to continue playing. But it was nice to go off and be John Dolmayan, as opposed to John from System, for a while.”

“Most of my friends are liberal.”

“There is something cool about setting up at a convention, having no guarantees and you make sales because you're personable and you have the right prices and the right product.”

“Everybody brought something unique to System of a Down, and the bottom line is when you go and do your own project, you're gonna do the best you can to make it great, but you don't have the benefit of the talent of the other people that were in your band with you.”

“I have no problems with Black Lives Matter and Antifa if they did it peaceably.”

“We're a very stubborn and stupid band. And we don't make decisions necessarily based on what's best for everybody.”

“People are hypersensitive and it's to the detriment of all of us really.”

“I've been collecting comics for well over twenty years and at a certain point I couldn't afford to buy more comics anymore, so I started selling comics, you know, to make money to buy new ones.”

“I think AOC is a moron. I just have to put that out there; I like to say that in every conversation.”