Tom Morello Quotes

I suppose we'll make money off our album and our singles and stuff, but, like, they were made as we wanted them, exactly with what we had to say, and done exactly how we wanted them, right? And, like, we didn't put them out to make money. We put them out because we wanted to do them, do you know what I mean?

I'm happy that I don't have to do covers anymore, because that's not what I do.

I can't tell you how freeing it is to have my own label. For the first time in my career, I have total control.

When I was starting out with record companies, there was a tendency to simplify the image as a prodigy. I have more than one adjective, and I've always tried to be myself and listen to my instincts.

When I can make music and don't have to think about anyone else's ideas or voice - when I'm making something that only I can make - it feels good. It's nice when you can find a sound that only you can make. No one else can make 'Cosmogramma.' No one else can make 'Until the Quiet Comes.'

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

I don't have this obsessive need to do street art all the time because it's already opened doors for me.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

I would rather fall flat on my face than try to just make a quick dollar by making music that fits into the radio format right now. It does nothing for me.

It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.

I don't want to get too involved in marketing budgets, online promotions and download set-ups because it would be a bit like Gertrude Stein mapping out a TV campaign. I want to sing. I want visibility. I am essentially Al Martino, not Seymour Stein.

I get offers to do huge-budget music videos with big production companies all the time, but I have no interest.

If you start to just aim for what the audience wants to hear, you're already hamstrung because you don't have any freedom.

Yeah, I like to be the maker of the art. And I like and want the money. But I don't really dig being famous.

I've known the glory of the stage and the glory of the spotlight. I still crave it. I want to be on 'American Bandstand' and 'Soul Train' as a solo artist. As a producer, songwriter and arranger, I help other artists say what they want to say. But on my records, I say what I want to say.

I wanted to express myself more fully through writing and directing. It just feels like a package deal. Anytime you create anything, you try to exert mastery over your world.

I feel like when I'm on stage, when I'm writing songs, singing songs, I'm in the studio, I'm shooting videos, I kind of get to become this character, and I can make that whatever I want to make that.

I've never... when I was having songs on the airwaves, and that sort of thing, I never felt a sense of pressure anywhere except from myself, to do things the way I wanted to do them; to feel authentic; to feel like I was presenting my true self to the world.

I told the record company I didn't feel the need to be at red-carpet events. I wanted a career. But I wanted to keep myself intact as a person.

I feel fortunate about being able to make the music I want to make and getting away with it.

I love it when a photographer lets me create my own movement and feeling to the images. By that I mean he doesn't restrict me in his or her own ideas but rather gives me a direction and lets me work within those boundaries freely.

There's a good many pictures I'd like to make; we'll see how many I'll be allowed to make.

There's this misconception in the industry that you might have to go a little lighter or skate on the surface in order to reach people - and then in your second album, you get to tell who you are.

I can't control what people think. I'm not trying to manipulate people's thoughts or sentiments. I write all the time. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. It's machine-like how things are run now in hip-hop, and my ambitions are different.

You make a movie that is about what you want it to be about and let people have their reaction to it.