A Dull Roar Quotes

“At one point two guys looked to start fighting and I yelled for them to kill each other and then they made up and I told them to fuck each other.”
― Henry Rollins, A Dull Roar: What I Did on My Summer Deracination 2006

“It's insane to see buildings in the middle of desert sprawl, the highway littered with coke cans and signs for Burger King. At the same time, it is amazing to drive for hours on a highway and think that at one point, men had to put the road down on the ground and that it was backbreaking work that tore muscle and burned skin. Men herniated themselves and worked for years so someone could drive at 80 miles an hour for a few hours.”
― Henry Rollins, A Dull Roar: What I Did on My Summer Deracination 2006

“No matter how simple your life is now, it is not as simple and to the point as it was when you were younger. You can't help but drag more stuff with you as the years go on. Experience has a price tag.”
― Henry Rollins, A Dull Roar: What I Did on My Summer Deracination 2006

“I will never, ever, get out of survival mode. I will always be desperate. Desperation and dread keep it real. It's why I walk my old streets as often as I can. I keep coming back around, keep wading into the place I came from. Never forget. Never take anything for granted. And never EVER think any of this is going to last longer than a tour, a film shoot, a week or a month at best. It's like climbing a mountain with no hope of reaching the summit. It's not like there isn't a summit. It's not a matter of never becoming enlightened because you're always on the way to becoming enlightened. There's a summit- I just lack what it takes to get there. I will die en route. That's how I see it.

If I am not at odds with at least some of it all of the time, then I will surely fail without honor.”
― Henry Rollins, A Dull Roar: What I Did on My Summer Deracination 2006

“I don't know what it is but I never want to stop moving. I like anything that allows me to keep a lot in a small space. I like iPods. All that music in a small box. It's perfect for a guy like me. I feel best when I am in a moving vehicle or backstage in some city anywhere in the world. I don't want to live with a woman. I don't want anyone to miss me. I don't want to call someone all the time and explain myself to them. I don't want anyone to give a fuck about me. It's just a drag. It just drags. It compromises and normalizes and makes everything only go so far. Years ago I wanted the relationship but now, I can't remember what that was like and can't pick up the scent of that trail or even see what I saw in it. I would have to look at old journal entries. All that stuff seems like someone else's thing. Feels like strangulation when you put your arms around me. Would rather be free and cold. Free and starving. Free and staring into the abyss with disintegrating eyes. Free and lost in the desert to die alone of thirst. That makes more sense to me than growing old with another human. I don't hate people. I don't want to hack them to pieces but as I get older, I only want to get on with it.”
― Henry Rollins, A Dull Roar: What I Did on My Summer Deracination 2006

“I got back here and felt relieved. I always feel good when I am on my own. It's the time when everything makes sense. When I am amongst people too much, I tell myself as soon as I finish whatever it is that I'm doing, I will be able to be on my own. It's the reward I give myself.”
― Henry Rollins, A Dull Roar: What I Did on My Summer Deracination 2006

“As I got farther away from the show, I started to feel better in a way because I was alone in the car and didn't have to talk to anyone or be anything except myself alone. Being myself alone is what I'm best at. I don't know who I am when I am around people.”
― Henry Rollins, A Dull Roar: What I Did on My Summer Deracination 2006