I like to be unhinged; I like to be unpredictable. I like to make people worry that worse things can happen whenever I go out to a restaurant or act in a movie.
I refuse to say things behind people's backs.
I was married to someone who wanted me to change. Become more adult, more responsible. I began not to like myself, not like what I do. I lost my identity. Everything began collapsing around me.
Marilyn Monroe wasn't even her real name, Charles Manson isn't his real name, and now, I'm taking that to be my real name. But what's real? You can't find the truth, you just pick the lie you like the best.
I dare you all to write one more thing that you won't say to my face.
My goal isn't to make money, it's to try and survive and make a point.
I can't go to sleep at night if I didn't accomplish at least something. That's the one thing that keeps me up.
I think confidence is the most appealing quality in any human being or any artist; that's what really attracts us to people.
The difference between me as Brian Warner or Marilyn Manson is just words. Same personality, sensibility, sense of humor, behavior. He is me.
This is the culture you're raising your kids in. Don't be surprised if it blows up in your face.
Anybody who does not evolve can become a self-parody. I have to evolve on a daily basis just to keep my own interest in what I do.
I did vote Obama. But I've never believed in the authenticity of the two-party system.
Someday, when I manage to finally figure out how to take care of myself, then I'll consider taking care of someone else.
I don't want to feel like I've matured. That's a stupid word that I never want to use.
I'm completely unlike a lot of other performers in the past who have been forgiven or come to terms with the real world because they tell everyone their performance is 'just a show.' And so, people say, 'Oh, it's OK then. We don't care. He's not really a bad person.' It's not just a show for me. It's my life.
I'm so famous, people expect me to sell as many records as Celine Dion or Puff Daddy.
When you're in a relationship, if you just break it down to regular terms, people are attracted to something, and that's what they want you to be, and that's what you should just be, and for me, it's very simple - if I meet a girl and I say, 'This is what I like about you. Just continue. Every day.'
Leave me in a room with some crayons and I'll draw on the wall.
I don't think I have ever tried to create things to encourage people to hurt others, or themselves.
I decided to make music again at a time when I couldn't have had more obstacles.
I don't need to drive. I have no business driving. I would never be able to find my keys.
I'm kind of shy, and I think that I take that out by performing in front of a lot of people. That's how I get out my shyness.
I fall in love very easily.
You might find me outside with a can of hair spray, spraying it with the hope that the sun will burn a hole in the Earth. Another part of me hopes people will grow up and evolve and get smarter. That's the paradox of Marilyn Manson.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm a character being written, or if I'm writing myself.
There's a certain group of people who are always going to dislike me and disagree with whatever I say.
I've never treated anyone in my band like they're not on the same level as me. I'm not that kind of person.
I'm not going to be some kind of PC, tree-hugger.
What I know is my music gets blamed for school shootings.
Part of me is afraid to get close to people because I'm afraid that they're going to leave.
There's just no great rock albums anymore. There's a lot of rock music out there, but it's very bland and disposable.
Johnny Depp is like a brother to me. We have matching tattoos on our backs - Charles Baudelaire, the flowers of evil, this giant skeleton thing. It's kind of a secret. People say to us, 'Why did you get that?' And we say, 'No reason.'
To me, Columbine is just as awful as Vietnam, and it's just as awful as anything else.
I think it's the pain and suffering that drive you to become an artist. The art itself should be the pain, sort of exorcising every demon and making you feel like you're a person that matters.
I'm not a masochist. I'm simply into trying to enjoy what I do, because otherwise there's no point.
If I were in a room full of people, I'd rather be the person who is more interesting than the one who is wallpaper.
Don't ever empty the bucket of mystery. Never let people define what you do. It's not about zigging when you should zag. It's not about doing something unprecedented and unpredictable. It's just about never being a word, or something that is not in the process of transformation.
To admit you want to have a comeback means you have to admit you weren't what you were supposed to be. You dropped below your own standard.
I don't have anything against Simon Cowell and 'The X Factor.'
Sacrifice to me is something you do without expecting something in return.
The time that people aren't expecting what's going to happen, I find that's the best time to really cause the damage that needs to be done.
If you believe in what you're doing, you're going to make money. When you question it, you won't.
If what you do is being threatened as a profession, that could be scary. But that's the same reason why I walked out on stage many times after receiving death threats. I couldn't live without doing what I wanted to do. So at the same time I have to be willing to die for it.
Jesus is a half-naked guy, hanging, nailed to a cross, and then people wear that around their neck, and then those are the people that are upset about violence in movies.
When you want to die, you at least have a goal. You're aiming for something. It's not a good goal, but at least you want something. And you've got anger and fear, but at least you're feeling something.
I often obsess so much about things that I can't get done, that I ruin other things.
There was definitely a lack of any sort of villain in the Clinton era, which is why, when Columbine happened, it was easy to pick on me. My face was around, and it made good TV.
There's nothing that anyone could say about me that would hurt my feelings.
My dad loves what I do and I support my parents financially because they didn't have a job that gave them a pension.
