To find the courage to do what I want to do for myself has been hard.

I was home-schooled, was always very close with my mom and was very straight-laced and square. I was never the rebellious one, and I never threw hissy fits.

I was listening to a lot of Norwegian black metal and death metal. There's a great history to Norwegian black metal. That music is very dark and violent, but it's also beautiful.

I'm learning with the older that I get that some feelings are just universal and that I'm not the only one who hates their hair or their life at times.

It's really hard to see yourself and to recognize that you are a human being like everybody else. You just think everybody's judging you.

Sometimes I laugh with my parents, and sometimes I yell at them, and both are therapeutic.

For me, the dumbest rule is that you can't chew gum in school. For some reason, chewing gum for me gets my brain going.

I usually get my lyrics when I let my mind wander, when you're not really awake, but not yet fully asleep. I keep an open notebook by my bed and then just write whatever comes to me.

I want more awareness of humanity in this world.

I'm so used to swimming with the piranhas. And they're really not that bad.

It's very scary to allow the world to see you.

A future as lonely as the surface of the moon and still just the sight of him feels like a homecoming, like a song I used to know but forgot.

The best gift you can give yourself is to give to someone else

Sometimes people graduate but they don't leave. They hang around for years, for no reason. I would think of ghosts like that, I decided.

Also, I'm angry. I know life is hard, I think everyone knows that in their hearts, but why does it have to be cruel, as well? Why does it have to bite?

The most beautiful sight in the world is a little child going confidently down the road of life after you have shown him the way.

Evolution, as a mechanism, can be and must be true. But that says nothing about the nature of its author. For those who believe in God, there are reasons now to be more in awe, not less.

One kind of happiness is to know exactly at what point to be miserable.

It is the fashion these days to make war, and presumably it will last a while yet.

Hate California--it's cold and it's damp.

For many artists fame complements the value of creative self-expression. Ludwig van Beethoven loved composing music, but he probably would have enjoyed it less if no one ever listened to the product.