I didn't follow any rules at all. I made my own.

Yeah, I was with Jethro Tull for three weeks, so what?

It has always been my goal to believe in what I do and love what I do and be true to that.

I hated school. After 15, you went off to college if you were good enough. It didn't appeal to me so I left school. I did what everybody did - get a job.

Learn 2 chords and then get a good lawyer before learning the 3rd.

For me, I've never talked about my private life. It's always been about Black Sabbath. It's strange to open up and talk about me as a young lad, my relationships, marriages and what not.

In the past, I'd sort of know before Ozzy sang something, what he was going to sing. I'd know what sort of way a melody was going to go 'cause of the way he'd approach it.

Eddie Van Halen was probably the most influential.

They sounded really professional because they had two Vox AC 30 amplifiers. I also had an AC 30, so when you looked at it, three AC 30s, three Fenders - bloody hell, it must be a great band!

We ought to be patient at all times.

I don't believe it pays to be a great author.

I don't know much, but I understand how entirely doomed I am without God.

Why are we mute? Where are our leaders, our legislators? Where is the church?

When I think of the gold-diggers and the Mormons, the slaves and the slave-holders and the flibustiers, I naturally dream of a glorious private life. No, I am not patriotic.

The question of whether a thing is right or wrong, good or bad, must always be considered in relation to a persons needs.

There's no substitute for live work to keep a band together.

Blaming guns for killing people is like blaming pencils for bad spelling

Action, reaction, motivation, emotion, all have to come from the characters. Writing a love scene requires the same elements from the writer as any other.

I try not to cry, in general. The experience of crying is so emotional and uncomfortable for me that I don't like to go there.