Henry Rollins Quotes

My own father held down two jobs, barely affording the little rented house I grew up in. My dad worked hard, lifted heavy things, and got his hands dirty. The only soap we had at my house was Lava. Heck, I was in college before I found out it wasn't supposed to hurt to take a shower.

Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to paradise of the achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths.

It really strikes me how much of your energy in America, especially if you're from a working back-ground, is spent just keeping your head above water. It really saps your grace and your strength.

I was very poor and I was a waitress, and it's hard to be a poor waitress in New York.

The wretch who digs the mine for bread, or ploughs, that others may be fed, feels less fatigued than that decreed to him who cannot think or read.

I've fought hard and now I'm weary to the bone.

My background's working class. My parents had to work to make ends meet. We don't come from any sense of privilege.

The marathon always starts after 30K. That's where the problems start. You start without any problems, without any pain. All the pain comes after 30K. Sometimes, it's possible to have pain even in the finger.

My father made about $25 a week. We always lived just on the edge.

It's impossible in heptathlon to have a proper rivalry - you're spending two days together and seven events and dedicate your life to it. It's like a marathon: two days of mental and physical exhaustion.

My mom would get up every day at 4 A.M. and worked two jobs. I always felt I was the poorest kid on the block. I had a chip on my shoulder about being broke.

My dad was a civil servant before he retired, and my mum worked, too. We could not always get three meals in a day; sometimes we'd struggle.

How withered away one can be from a life of unremitting toil.

With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, Plying her needle and thread.

No one hates his job so heartily as a farmer.

I walked the streets of New York for two years begging for a job, and I couldn't get one.

America has become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day.

Born down in a dead man's town, The first kick I took was when I hit the ground, You end up like a dog that's been beat too much, Till you spend half your life just covering up...

You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

The greatest part of mankind ... are given up to labor, and enslaved to the necessity of their mean condition; whose lives are worn out only in the provisions for living.

The wino and I know the pain of back bustin'.

I had a different upbringing - my dad worked three jobs. You know, it wasn't as easy as they had it.

Think! I've got enough to do, and little enough to get for it, without thinking.

When I was forty, I was getting divorced, living in a low-class, dirty hotel in New York. My mother was dying of cancer. I owed $20,000. That was about the lowest. I came back to show business, and I couldn't get a job. I was turned down by every small-time agent in New York.