John Rzeznik

“I didn't think about having kids until like I was 48, 49 years old.”

“I have this dreadful image of me driving down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, with the windows rolled down, and our song comes on... and I'm sitting there listening to it and some guy pulls up next to me and thinks, 'Hey, it's that guy from the Goo Goo Dolls... he's listening to his own music. What a jerk!'”

“I have this morbid fascination with being completely alienated from everybody, and a lot of the time I really do feel that way.”

“You can hate my band, I really don't care what your opinion is.”

“I was a bartender, a hot-dog vendor, a cook, sold magazine subscriptions.”

“Having a collection of regrets when you hit your 40s is part of the deal.”

“It's really weird how the rock world is quickly becoming like the jazz world. How if you do OK, or get a tiny bit of success, that's considered a sellout, whether you did anything different or not.”

“I made a deadline for myself that if I wasn't earning a living being a musician by 'A Boy Named Goo,' I was going to get back to school, get a degree, and go on with my life - and enjoy the memories I had.”

“I have a very powerful form of alcoholism. I finally gave up and accepted the fact that if I even smell too much booze, I'm going to start drinking again. That's just how I am.”

“I really love Tegan and Sara.”

“I don't want to raise someone who feels entitled.”

“I don't write a lot of fiction.”

“There's a lot of shiny, pretty objects out there that when you actually touch them, they just fall apart. And it's like, you need to be authentic, you need to be yourself.”

“I get nervous around famous people.”

“I no longer feel the pressure of trying to write hits for the radio anymore.”

“I'm one of these guys who always feel like the outsider, you know? I'm always longing to be part of something, you know?”

“There's always those few people that are like, 'Why don't you play any of the material off your first two records?' And I'm like, 'For the same reason that I don't play with G.I. Joe dolls anymore.' It's like, 'I'm a grown-up.' I wrote that music when I was a kid.”

“I'm lucky I actually make a living making music.”

“I've written songs everywhere, and I think the place does matter.”

“I feel a whole lot of gratitude for having hits.”