Imagine if Beethoven had a tape recorder. Then you'd know exactly what he meant. Maybe he meant 'Da da da da' instead of 'Boom boom boom boom!' Who knows?

Rock stars come and go. Musicians play until they die.

To hell with the rules. If it sounds right, then it is.

If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that’s a wonderful thing.

My son, Wolfgang, plays drums, guitars and bass.

It's always about the music, never about anything else.

Music kept me off the streets and out of trouble and gave me something that was mine that no one could take away from me.

You know, most people, they want to go to Hollywood. They want to be a star. They want to be a rock star. That thought never entered any of our minds, the Van Halen family.

When Van Halen started out, there was no path to fame. We just played what we liked. Even today it always comes down to the simplicity of rock and roll.

Sometimes I just want to lick David Lee Roth in the nuts

A guitar is a very personal extension of the person playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually connected to your instrument. I'm very brutal on my instruments, but not all the time.

Pencil. Paper. Forget the world.

Doesn't sunlight kill them? Doesn't it turn them to dust, or make them burst into flames or something?""Nope. Vampires tan, just like you and me. Well, just like you. I tend to bleach.

Many a year I told her tales. And then the time came for me to watch. And watch I have.

Experience shows that exceptions are as true as rules.

A lot of positive psychology is stuck in being the psychology of privilege, and I reject that.

Never do nothing you wouldnt want printed on the front page of The New York Times.

God creates each soul differently, so that when all the mud is finally cleared away, His light will shine through it in a beautiful, colorful, totally new pattern.

It is always the moralists who do the most harm. Abortion is the logical outcome of civilization, only the jungle gives birth and moulders away as nature decrees. Man plans.

Eat with consciousness. When you eat with consciousness, and you know what you're eating, and you eat it in full appreciation of what it is, it's enormously satisfying.

I think the book is less emotional than the film. With the film, the emotions are much more raw and in front. In the book, they are kind of ironized and seen through comedy.