Henry Rollins Quotes

You know, I love traveling and I love being exposed to different cultures, but really it's the people that I've met along the way, not the places I've been, that have opened my eyes.

I've been traveling all over the world for 25 years, performing, talking to people, studying their cultures and musical instruments, and I always come away with more questions in my head than can be answered.

I grew up in Africa surrounded by a lot of culture. It's made me aware that the world is a big place.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

One of my favorite luxuries in life is travel. Jet lag and lost baggage aside, it's an incredible way to learn about other cultures, meet new people, broaden your horizons... and do some amazing shopping!

I grew up in the South Pacific. Basically, my brothers were Guamanian. I spoke words of Guamanian long before I spoke words of English, and so I've seen a lot. You know, I've traveled in places where people don't have the benefits of American life. And so I've seen a lot of stuff.

I started traveling by myself as early as 5 to see my dad. I'd go to Toronto or Los Angeles, depending on what show he was doing, but most often New York, and we would hang out, and he'd take me to museums and Broadway plays. The ones that had the biggest impact on me were the George C. Wolfe productions.

If you ask any of my kids today what their most important experience was in their education, they would say it was the travel and the ability to see and be in other cultures.

I've been exposed to so many different cultures.

I am worried that young Japanese people are not very curious about the outside world - which is so different to the way we were in the Sixties and Seventies. All they want to listen to is Japanese pop. They haven't even heard of Radiohead!

In Grade 2, when we had to do a presentation in front of the class, I'd always do things about Ireland or Italy. I could draw maps; I could name all the capitals: I was completely drawn to other lands. I discovered with time that it's a thirst for other people, for otherness, for something fascinating and mysterious.

I've been to Australia, Russia and many of places I wanted to see as a child. But I've never visited India. I've had many invitations to play there but it hasn't worked out. People say it's beautiful, but I think I'd react badly to the poverty.

I'm not trying to amass people in the streets. I just want them to be more aware. So many Americans, for one reason or another, they watch the news and it doesn't really give them the idea of the world. Or they don't read or travel. They have no idea that America is part of the world and not the world itself. And so anything from the travel stories I tell, that's what I'm trying to get across.

It's important for people to try and be more like Marco Polo in how he explored the world, very few of us nowadays pay attention to cultures and try to understand them.

Do you think it's so snobbish, to want to see something besides one's fellow citizens abroad?

I'd love to travel more. I really look forward to traveling with my kids. I'm just waiting for them to want to travel with me.

Yes, for most people nowadays television is their only contact with the world beyond their work.

I was really selfish, and I didn't want to listen to anyone. Then I started working with some really amazing people, traveling more, and figuring out who I was as a person - looking at different things, listening to different music.

Sometimes when you're relegated to your neighborhood, you forget that there's more important things than your neighborhood going on out in the world. And that just gave me a chance to see how life could be. And it gave me a chance to interact with everybody, not just black people or Mexicans. It made me just a little more worldly.

I've never been overseas. I can only imagine what that's like.

When I turned twenty-five, I did a six-week trip around Europe by myself. I'd never really done a European trip before and I'd definitely never traveled alone like that. I just had such a great time meeting people. I had such a great time seeing new cultures and different ways that people think and different ways that they live and different ways that they see the world.

It's a civic virtue to be exposed to things that appear to be outside your interest. In a complex world, almost everything affects you – that closes the loop on pecuniary self-interest. Customers are always right, but people aren't.

I am constantly drawing inspiration from everything I see-the places I travel, the people I know and the movies I see.

You go to new places and it opens your eyes to different things you haven't seen before. Everything from colors, to silhouettes, to patterns - it just comes from everywhere.

EARTH DAY reminds the people of the world of the need for continuing care which is vital to Earth's safety.