Jesse Michaels quotes:

I hated Shallow Grave, that movie made me angry. And I hated Happiness. I generally hate movies that use extreme violence or gratuitous shock value in place of having a heart. For example: movies that combine extremely sadistic violence with humor I find offensive.

I'm not a vegetarian, and I like filet minion which is sort of a guilty pleasure because I have vegetarian leanings. I eat that once in a while, but generally speaking I like to eat vegetarian things. I really like pasta. I really like bread with olive oil and garlic and I like salads.

In a novel, the biggest symbiosis exists between plot and character. In a song, it would be the lyrics and the melody.

Music is an indirect force for change

I don't isolate too much or make the project my god. This helps a lot with negative ideation.

Punk can be a mental ghetto. People get into it and make all these rules and pretty soon they're worse than born again Christians and have stupid three hour conversation about things like, which band is a sellout and is straight edge cool or un-cool and it's just completely idiotic. So punk has taught me the aesthetic of the outsider, which is great, but it's also taught me not to get involved in petty little cults.

Sometimes I would write while inspired and sometimes I would write through sheer force of will, and in revision the writing that I thought was "dead" very frequently turned out to be better because it was more free of ego.

In some ways, I am actually quite optimistic - I believe in the possibility of redemption and forgiveness.

I always quit while I am still inspired, while I could still write more. Never let the thread run all the way out.