Maynard James Keenan quotes:

A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral.

Reading is more of a left-brain process, and listening to music is a right-brain function.

But you know, I'm the negative-Nancy, curmudgeon, glass-half-empty-with-a-leak-in-it guy - which is basically the fuel that fires me up anyway. Without that, we wouldn't have me.

Nowadays, you have to sell, like, half a million or a million records just to break even.

Because as an only child, you have your own little world.

I think the biggest problem working with me would be that I'm an only child, and so I have an internal dialogue that goes on that I just assume you can hear.

A lot of names in America and Europe have their roots in Latin and Greek words. A lot of them go back to archetypes and their stories.

I'm not an educated man. I only know what I'm told, and I'm not told that much; I have no frame of reference for how to place things in history be a responsible leader. All I can do is be an artist.

After all, in today's music scene every band seems to steal from other bands.

I think the media made Manson, turned him into some larger than life figure and surrounded him with mystery and some shady glamour.

We're five people, five individuals who came together to create something, to make music and to complete each other musically, to form a perfect circle.

If you take different mythologies from different cultures, the names may change and the story lines may vary but there is always something in common.

I would hope they would be our fellow artists, rather than trying to emulate or idolize clowns like us.

Because artists can be extremely eccentric and insane, and unfortunately, the people they hurt the most are the people that are closest to them.

I want to find a genie in a bottle that can grant me three wishes. I want to be able to speak, read, write, and understand any language ever written or spoken, just any language throughout the history of man. That would be one of my wishes from the genie, so I would have to put "multilingual" on the resume, should I ever find the genie.

The record company's worst fear is that you'll fall in love or get rich.

Today's woman puts on wigs, fake eyelashes, false nails, sixteen pounds of make-up/shadows/blushes/creams, living bras, various pads that would make a linebacker envious, has implants and assorted other surgeries, then complains that she cannot find a 'real' man

Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here

This sort of behavior is left to the psychotic, dogmatic, fundamentalist believers you see on your TV everyday letting off bombs and killing people in the name of God. Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing.

If the education of our kids comes from radio, television, newspapers - if that's where they get most of their knowledge from, and not from the schools, then the powers that be are definitely in charge, because they own all those outlets.

Yeah, because I think it's more important just to inspire people to wake up one day and pick up a book and start feeling it out for themselves.

I'm a pessimist. But I'm a pessimist with a sense of responsibility.

Most religious stories and mythologies have some sort of similar root, some sort of global archetypes.

There were a lot of choices to make and I always picked artist. I never once picked doctor, lawyer, firemen or something like that. It was always artist.

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?

I just hope that our fans are people who are inspired by music, and just use our music as a background or inspiration for whatever it is they do.

There are people who are like monkeys in a cage just hitting the coke button. They don't really get that for [musicians and artists] to do these things, they have to fund them. They have to have something to pay the rent.

I think people in general have neglected to learn about history.

I believe that when you go into a gallery or a museum, the most powerful pieces are the ones that don't have the words in the corner that distract you from the larger piece.

It's in my blood. My great-grandfather made wine and it's a tradition I want to pass on to my son.

The process that we go through in recording with Tool is very organic, but at the same time it is very thought out. There is a very left-brain process of dissecting what we're doing and drawing from source material; it's very research oriented and esoteric.

I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself.

Put a small child in a playpen with an apple and a bunny. If s/he eats the apple and plays with the bunny, s/he's normal;but if s/he eats the bunny and plays with the apple, I'll buy you a new car. Somewhere along the line we must have been TAUGHT to do the wrong thing.

I believe that music is a force in itself. It is there and it needs an outlet, a medium. In a way, we are just the medium.

It's a purging of sorts. Like, when you're all done doing your laundry and it's fresh and bright, but washing the clothes, you wouldn't want to get in while it's spinning around.

People have to follow their hearts, and if their hearts lead them to Wal-Mart, so be it.

Music is about listening, the more you play, the more the magic spreads.

Everything revolves around the music when it comes to Tool.

You really should be able to feel the higher power of music and be moved by it, rather than listening to me waffle on and having to explain it.

All I can do is say I smell a rat. I don't know where it is or what kind of rat it is, but as an artist, I can express how. But I couldn't responsibly stand up and tell people which way to go, because then I'm just as guilty as the people who are telling everybody else what to do and where to go.

I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes.

I've always had an affinity for growing things.

Adam does most of the work when it comes to videos and he basically does the same as I do with the lyrics. The videos are his visual interpretations of our music.

I think everything Joni Mitchell did for music was big.

You know, I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell.

Just in general, any government throughout history hasn't really wanted its people to be educated, because then they couldn't control them as easily.

But then it hasn't really been a focus of our government to make us an educated people.

Actors have these delicate appendages called Egos.

Shows are really strange. Sometimes you really don't know what to expect.

A lot of people into Tool, for some reason, are not interested in humor.

Actually I never did stand up. I'm not that funny.

And if you don't live, you have nothing to write about.

Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing.

Blending is just like writing lyrics or finishing up the song, rearranging and arranging.

But I'm a hot-blooded Italian by nature. Whatever the situation you present, I'm going to make something out of it.

Choices always were a problem for you. What you need is someone strong to guide you. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to use you - like me.

Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion between supposed lovers

Desert, in generally, is a very good place to find yourself. Or lose yourself.

Do unto others what has been done to you,

Every now and then, you get people who tend to forget what this country is about, which is a melting pot of races and cultures and freedom of speech.

Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.

Finding beauty in the dissonance

For me, life is writing and I can do it anywhere. It doesn't matter where I am. I listen. I write. I live.

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.

I always knew that I wanted to be creative, that I wanted to create something

I can't be a legend yet. I'm not dead.

I feel like there's no real innovation in having some music. It's more just unique personalities and unique expressions, and you being able to tell your story.

I feel like with music there's so much ego rooted in expressing your thoughts and your experiences with it.

I think artists are going to express things from an emotional point of view, that's their job, to suggest and interpret, and report what they witness. That's their job as artists, you're looking for the rub, where's the rub, you're a storyteller, you're looking for the rub, not necessarily the solutions, or you're not necessarily educated, you're not the winner of a debate contest, a national debate contest, you're not necessarily a person who has a doctorate in anything.

I think that every collective that you witness occurring on a stage, it's not about any one of the individuals. There's something that's happened that's kind of put all that stuff together into a much bigger result ... some alchemy.

I think that people get outraged over things. I think what we really need is a kind of borderline extinction level event to get people back to caring about what really matters.

I think there's a reason why wine figures into so many religions. There's something transcendent about it. It's sort of the way that music is more than the sum of its parts. You have all these elements that make up the terroir that wine can communicate.

If you want to get your soul to heaven, trust in me. Don't judge or question. You are broken now, but faith can heal you. Just do everything I tell you to do.

I'm a lot easier to work with now than I have been in the past, for sure.

It's the role of us to run our government, the government by the people, for the people, and I don't think our government is listening to the people. It's our role as patriots to question them, because we elected them. And if they're not fairly and accurately representing us, it's the job of the people, the patriots, to take their country back.

Jesus Christ, why dont you come save my life. Open my eyes and blind me with your light and your lies.

Knuckle deep inside the borderline. This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to. Relax. Slip away.

Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What's the difference?

Life is too short not to create something with every breath we draw.

Novell has the necessary resources to be a much more profitable enterprise but it currently lacks the vision, strategy and execution to produce respectable returns.

Once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer.

One of my biggest heroes in music has been David Bowie. He's said, `I'm going to be a painter now, or I'm going to do some films,' and his audience is very forgiving, because they understand him as an artist. Whether you agree or like the result, you respect that he's expressing his artistic feelings.

One of the challenges we set up for 'Puscifer' was to come up with a core identity and see how far we can push it.

People get upset and it becomes an excuse to treat other people a certain way,but if you really step back, you realize what you've left behind.

Prescott National Forest is right on the edge of my home in Arizona.

Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing.

Seems like Ive been here before. Seems so familiar. Seems like Im slipping into a dream within a dream.

Shows are really strange. Sometimes you really don't know what to expect

So crucify the ego, before its far too late To leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical, And you will come to find that we are all one mind Capable of all thats imagined and all conceivable. Just let the light touch you And let the words spill through And let them pass right through Bringing out our hope and reason ... before we pine away.

Standing above the crowd, He had a voice so strong and loud And I swallowed his façade 'cause I'm so Eager to identify with Someone above the ground, Someone who seemed to feel the same, Someone prepared to lead the way, with Someone who would die for me.

The army influences everything I do. Certainly it teaches you discipline, which is a necessary element of development. I think there's more of a collaborative understanding in the band because of that.

The trick is to use the drugs once to get there, and maybe spend the next ten years trying to get back there without the drug.

There is still a future with music, because people want music

There's always somebody in your life you know that just, somehow, you know, they're just that borderline sociopath that just wants what they want and doesn't care about relationships. Everybody has several of those people in their life.

There's conflict in everything, just trying to buy a used car you deal with people that you don't want to deal with, you know, that's just the way of life, nothing stops changing, you're always going to have the conflict till your last breath, I mean on your deathbed, arguing with the doctor who's going to pay the bill, you know, it's just the reality of it, so none of that ever goes away.

This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality. Embrace this moment, remember: we are eternal all this pain is an illusion.

To put things back into perspective, back when we as people were struggling to survive through winters, or even through the night, I feel like there's a lot of whining about whether or not you use Asian or the words Asian or Oriental, and how it's going to offend somebody, I mean give me - I mean, just shut up.

We are eternal. All this pain is an illusion.

We're just four guys and we are enjoying what we're doing with Tool.

Whenever you try to work through the things that we're trying to work through, that we're addressing, it ends up looking negative. Our goal is nonjudgment, nonfiltered acceptance of everything. So much of our background collectively, especially in the United States, is denying and suppressing and disowning a lot of negativity and the darker areas. You can become swallowed up in it. It's cancerous. The goal should be to define acceptance for everything. To try and consider every aspect. To try to look into the shadows, as well as the light.

Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused.

You can grow grapes in almost any part of the world. You just have to develop your palate enough to realize wine is an expression of the place where you make it. You don't have to take over the world; just be an artist and express your area.

Life feeds on life... feeds on life feeds on life... this is neccesary... this is necessary life feeds on life... feeds on life

Sure, I love fairy tales.