1.
And if you don't believe the sun will rise, stand alone and greet the coming night in the last remaining light.
Chris Cornell
If you doubt the dawn's arrival, stand alone and greet the burgeoning darkness in the fading glimmer.
2.
The words you say never live up to the words in your head.
Chris Cornell
The ideas in your mind are more powerful than the words that come out of your mouth.
3.
I used to work in jobs I hated because I needed the money to buy a guitar. I know what it feels like to be depressed. On the other hand, I also know what it feels like to have money, to be successful, to be independent, but I can tell you that money and success never solve your problems.
Chris Cornell
4.
Be yourself is all that you can do.
Chris Cornell
Express yourself authentically.
5.
I'm not a lyric writer to make statements. What I enjoy doing is making paintings with lyrics, creating colorful images. I think that's more what entertainment and music should be.
Chris Cornell
I'm not a wordsmith to make proclamations. What I take pleasure in doing is crafting pictures with lyrics, creating vivid images. I believe that's more what amusement and music should be.
6.
And I'm lost behind
The words I'll never find
And I'm left behind
As seasons roll on by
Chris Cornell
I'm stranded without the speech to articulate my feelings,
Abandoned as time ceaselessly marches on.
7.
I think that sometimes almost the bigger tragedy in a weird way is all of the future imagined creative projects that could have happened that didn't. I feel the same way about lots of brilliant people who die young, kind of senselessly especially.
Chris Cornell
8.
People don't realize how much fun it is to be depressed.
Chris Cornell
9.
There's something about losing friends, particularly young people, where it's not something that you get over. I don't believe there's a healing process.
Chris Cornell
10.
She gives the night its dreams.
Chris Cornell
11.
I don't think there are too many rock bands in history that can look at the beginning and middle and ending of themselves and see what I see when I think of Soundgarden. I think from the beginning through the middle and the end it was such a perfect ride and such a perfect legacy to leave.
Chris Cornell
12.
What do you think Jesus would twitter, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone' or 'Has anyone seen Judas? He was here a minute ago.'
Chris Cornell
13.
I would hope that the future would have an international community that's not just bent on commerce, but that's focused on refugees, of all kinds and from all places. We don't know that won't happen in the U.S. someday. It literally could be a crisis from climate change, or anything. I think there needs to be a global focus on people taking care of people.
Chris Cornell
14.
Everybody is influenced by someone.
Chris Cornell
15.
Children should always feel like the adults are living in this world to nurture them, to take care of them, to protect them from any bad thing that might come.
Chris Cornell
16.
I don't get in there and create a character. It's more of a voice that I hear living inside the music.
Chris Cornell
17.
I'm pretty critical, but I'm also pretty good at letting go once it's done. There's this existential argument that comes in, at some point, when you're over-thinking the songwriting process. There's no guarantee that the more time you spend or the more you concentrate on certain aspects that that's going to produce a better result, especially in the arts. Some of the most brilliant things that someone might do could happen in three minutes because it's something that just occurs to them.
Chris Cornell
18.
In the United States, workouts tend to focus on body image and how you look. For me, it's really all about the brain.
Chris Cornell
19.
Any way that you can get the end result is valid, whatever it takes.
Chris Cornell
20.
It's great when you play to an audience that knows the words to all your songs, and sings them back to you.
Chris Cornell
21.
If I'm going to go out to be a solo artist, it's because I want to do something different without having to wait on someone else's schedule or hobbies or be limited by other people's prejudices. I'd be kind of stupid not to exercise that.
Chris Cornell
22.
'The Beatles' did whatever they wanted. They were a collection of influences adapted to songs they wanted to write. George Harrison was instrumental in bringing in Indian music. Paul McCartney was a huge Little Richard fan. John Lennon was into minimalist aggressive rock.
Chris Cornell
23.
I started as a drummer, so I sort of took on singing duties by default. I had sung backgrounds and some lead vocals from behind the drums in different bands that I'd been in, and I'd gotten great responses for the songs I would sing. I really started pursuing the possibility of being a lead singer based on the fact that I was working a full-time restaurant job and then playing gigs at night, hauling drums around. One day, it just dawned on me that, 'Hey, I could be in a band and be the singer, and it would be a lot easier!'
Chris Cornell
24.
It isn't necessary to be an untouchable rock-icon guy surrounded by bodyguards and be ushered in and out and have everyone do everything for you. It isn't necessary to change the way you present your band to the public just because you're successful. That happened a lot in the '80s: there was a school of thought that said people would like you more if you acted like you were the unattainable star.
Chris Cornell
25.
Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth. We're more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage.
Chris Cornell
26.
To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.
Chris Cornell
27.
I've had a long career and I want to continue to have a long career. The way to do that is not to go away.
Chris Cornell
28.
There wasn't a key moment when I knew I wanted to quit.
Chris Cornell
29.
If you are trying to think ahead musically, it is not going to help you. It is better to ignore what is happening melodically and just look at the little dots coming at you and the corresponding colors and try to do it at the right time.
Chris Cornell
30.
A true musician, like Johnny Cash, should be able to walk into a room with nothing but an instrument and capture people's attention for two hours.
Chris Cornell
31.
I feel like you're not a real musician or entertainer if you can't go into a room, pick up an instrument and entertain people.
Chris Cornell
32.
What makes that song, I think, is how stark it is.
Chris Cornell
33.
At the end of the day it's the fans who make you who you are.
Chris Cornell
34.
I play Texas Hold'em on my Blackberry. I have amassed a fortune on that. I have almost 30 million dollars from playing. It is unreal.
Chris Cornell
35.
When you're having a conversation with someone who, despite his brilliant medical career, says he's going to produce the film, you think, "How's he gonna do this? Is he insane, or is he really going to pull this off? It might be both." It's really amazing to see someone do what he's done.
Chris Cornell
36.
My brother brought home 'At San Quentin' when I was about 7, and we played it over and over again.
Chris Cornell
37.
Due to irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences, I am permanently leaving the band Audioslave. I wish the other three members nothing but the best in all of their future endeavours.
Chris Cornell
38.
I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That's not gone away.
Chris Cornell
39.
I actually think to some degree that people are down for longer shows with an acoustic show.
Chris Cornell
40.
I'm looking California, And feeling Minnesota...
Chris Cornell
41.
I think it's important for fans to know that but if I'm doing something that inspires me musically then I think it will inspire someone else too.
Chris Cornell
42.
If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving.
Chris Cornell
43.
I don't ever want something that I didn't do because I was afraid of it or I didn't think I'd be good at it - within reason. Obviously I'm never going to be able to play the trumpet.
Chris Cornell
44.
Once you sit in front of people and start playing songs, it's all on you. No matter what happens, it's entirely your responsibility the entire time. I like that intensity.
Chris Cornell
45.
Led Zeppelin is just a bunch of stupid idiots who wrote cool riffs.
Chris Cornell
46.
I had to teach myself to let go of the conventional rock way of playing guitar and singing. Some things you wouldn't expect to work, did and some things won't ever work.
Chris Cornell
47.
I don't really go mountain biking per se, like a proper sport.
Chris Cornell
48.
I think that one of the main privileges of what I do, which I am just starting to learn, is to have the ability to travel all over the world and experience different cultures.
Chris Cornell
49.
I'm not usually in a talkative mode.
Chris Cornell
50.
When that much time goes by, you're really listening to your old music differently. At the time it's written, it was the beginning of our career and with every song we're thinking, 'This is what's creating us.' Now, nothing is creating us. We're well-created. We're there. It becomes just pure pleasure and you become sort of an archeologist of your own music. You don't judge it, because what's the point? It's a 30-year-old song. It just becomes fun.
Chris Cornell