George Carlin Quotes

What's the point of staying sober?

When I cleaned up some 17 odd years ago, I felt terrible for about six months. The only thing that gave me any real relief was strenuous physical activity.

Addiction is a terrible thing.

If you ask me if I think I will be sober in 24 hours time I can say yes, but in two years I can't tell you. I could be dead.

I think I've definitely had my rock bottom and I think that was probably right before I went into treatment where I said, 'I definitely need help.'

Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.

I used to drink a lot. I had to stop drinking because it was getting the better of me, and I replaced that with really doing shows.

Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest.

People ask me, what was your rock bottom? I say, pick.

I could not finish the rest of the tours the band had planned. I was replaced by Matt Cameron. The next years of my life were about recovery, healing, and right living. I never lost the need to create.

As my career has progressed, I've had the pleasure of playing with the baddest jazz cats on the planet. But that doesn't change my desire to entertain folks. That's really who I am.

It's an addiction... and addiction is something I should know something about.

It is hard to understand addiction unless you have experienced it.

I fought back, got injured again and I had to have another operation. I got down and depressed and I think I was drinking more than I should. Well, I know I was.

Well, all I can say is, it's a day-by-day program, and so I'm very worried about relapsing, but I don't know. I don't want to use. I don't want to go back to that place because nothing good came of it. It was super dark; it's not nice.

The thing is, if I don't have sobriety, I don't have anything.

People who have never had an addiction don't understand how hard it can be.

No matter what you're going through, as long as you have some specific emotion, whether it's positive or negative, it is all stuff that you can use on stage.

'Higher Power' was the result of a personal experience: a friend of mine who went through the process of addiction and recovery. It's a very, very tough thing - very easy to become addicted and very, very hard to become a recovering addict.

An actress must never lose her ego - without it she has no talent.

Now that I understand that I'm an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

I've triumphed over addiction.

I do not live in the world of sobriety.

I was a functional addict.

I have an addiction. I have a mental illness.