Maynard James Keenan's Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Once you take yourself too seriously the art will suffer.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.