Maynard James Keenan

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

“I've always had an affinity for growing things.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.”