I feel like trying to write a song in order to be a big hit is just not something I'm interested in because it's not going to come from an authentic place of expression.
I don't want people buying my records for this summer's hit. I want people buying them because they're interested in what Ministry will have to say in the future.
I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can't help it. It's the truth.
The book trade invented literary prizes to stimulate sales, not to reward merit.
Miley Cyrus is about making money. Amanda Palmer is about making art.
Saying the Tech Bloom is not commercially driven is like saying Mother Teresa had an interest in the poor.
My issue in the past with nudity was that these scenes had been written solely for box office draw.
If you're making music strictly to make money, you might as well find another job.
There's a difference between making the music for a check vs. what you think you should be doing artistically and creatively.
I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell.
Every day I spend in Hollywood, I start to realize how many films are made with no heart and no love. They just do it for the paycheck, and I cannot imagine making a film that way.
Mainly, I don't like it when music is made solely to impress people or in order to please business people; it doesn't sound good to me. If you're making music in order to become famous or loved by the masses... that's not what I'm about. When somebody's making music for the wrong reasons, I hear it right away.
There's one reason why [Presidents' Day] is a holiday. It had nothing to do with our country deciding that we wanted to show reverence for our presidents, Lincoln, Washington, or all of them. Nothing to do with that. The ski industry wanted a three-day weekend.
I'm not going to write for posterity. I'm going to write to make a buck.
Inspired by the purse rather than the soul, the mercenary side fairly screams in many of the works put out by every day American publishers.
The problem is that I don't want to add another record to the world that is not necessary to be published, except to make some business. There has to be a musical reason.
In my world, if you want to make a record to make money, you're already off to a bad start.
I don't think most rock stars are particularly calculating. I don't think they sit there and think, 'I will do this; therefore, on Monday, I will sell another 200,000 records'.
