Latest Chris Cornell Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• They always say that the entertainment and restaurant industries are the only businesses that don't sink during a depression or a recession. I've done both, and I recommend to anyone who wants to be a rock star, if that doesn't pan out, become a cook.

  Chris Cornell

  Done, Rock Star

  Source: www.spin.com

• I don't care what people think of me or for what reason they think of me. I don't feel like I don't know who I am to the degree that I have to change my hair to create a new me.

  Chris Cornell

  Thinking, People, Care

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• If you sold a million records, the only way you could be disappointed is if the guy down the street sold seven million. But you've got to start dodging bullets once you've sold that many records, because everybody wants to kill you. We're not in that position. We can still be very successful and not have to worry about wearing bulletproof vests.

  Chris Cornell

  Successful, Worry, Guy

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• 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

  School, Successful, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• 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

  Thinking, Reason, Be Good

  Source: www.sheknows.com

• 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

  Song, Fun, Thinking

  Source: www.menshealth.com

• 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

  Letting Go, Art, Done

  Source: collider.com

• Any way that you can get the end result is valid, whatever it takes.

  Chris Cornell

  Whatever It Takes

  Source: collider.com

• 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

  Thinking, People, Focus

  Source: collider.com

• 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

  Thinking, Insane, Done

  Source: collider.com

• 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

  Thinking, People, Creative

  "Chris Cornell On Layne Staley’s Death: ‘It’s Harder To Find A Silver Lining’" by Brett Buchanan, archive.alternativenation.net. October 29, 2015.

• Maybe sincerity is the new punk. But to me, I think I have to connect with something emotionally, on some level, or I don't care about it. And if I don't care about it, then I don't think anyone listening to it will, either.

  Chris Cornell

  Thinking, Listening, Levels

  "'Maybe Sincerity Is The New Punk': Chris Cornell On Embracing Space". "Weekend Edition Sunday" with Rachel Martin, www.npr.org. September 13, 2015.

• Sometimes, if a song is written, in essence, to be that stripped down, it's very touchy when you start adding things, because even the smallest thing can have a huge impact. Somebody has to make the decision that there's a better song in there if there's less.

  Chris Cornell

  Song, Impact, Essence

  "'Maybe Sincerity Is The New Punk': Chris Cornell On Embracing Space". "Weekend Edition Sunday" with Rachel Martin, www.npr.org. September 13, 2015.

• What makes that song, I think, is how stark it is.

  Chris Cornell

  Song, Thinking, Starks

  "Maybe Sincerity Is The New Punk': Chris Cornell On Embracing Space". "Weekend Edition Sunday" with Rachel Martin, www.npr.org. September 13, 2015.

• 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

  Thinking, Color, Trying

  "Exclusive: Chris Cornell Talks Writing Music for MACHINE GUN PREACHER, His Career, Soundgarden, Touring, Johnny Cash, Video Games and Much More". Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. September 30, 2011.

• Everybody is influenced by someone.

  Chris Cornell

  Source: www.npr.org

• 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

  Race, Car, Musical

  "Chris Cornell throws down". Interview with Shanon Cook, www.cnn.com. April 22, 2009.