Maynard James Keenan

“Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.”

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

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

“I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.”

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

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

“...music, if it really resonates, will beat somewhere right near your heartbeat. That music will make sense to you...because it's in rhythm with your soul.”

“I think everything Joni Mitchell did for music was big.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“Once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“There is still a future with music, because people want music.”