It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively that is but as a means of personal expression.

In almost every interview someone asks what does HIM stand for. I can't even remember our latest lie about that. When Hanson was hot we said it means Hanson Is Murder. The name doesn't have a particular history. His Infernal Majesty was a totally different band. I think HIM derives from some death metal joke.

To say yes you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It is easy to say no even if saying no means death.

Yes people pull the trigger - but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary and delay means more death and horror.

Death to me means nothing as long as I can die fast.

I'm 31 now. I think I'm beginning to understand what life is what romance is and what a relationship means.

Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others.

My dad has always been very proud of me but I think I have exceeded his expectations. When I told him I wanted to be an actor and moved to New York City I think he assumed I would be playing the guitar on the subway and collecting spare change in my guitar case. The fact that I'm not doing that means that I'm a huge success.

You can' t help being a musician because you've grown up with music yet being one means being compared to your dad and being slated for it. But I really don't have the ambitions of most people going into the industry.

Becoming a dad means you have to be a role model for your son and be someone he can look up to.

Paul McCartney had a baby when he was 61 Rod Stewart was 66 Rupert Murdoch was a stunning 72. Not only does that mean they'll have less stamina than the average dad that means they'll well check out a lot sooner too.

I try to be a hard boiled sometimes. My kids see right through it. I'm acting. It's always 'When I say you'll be back at 11 that means 11 not 11.15. Do you hear me!?' Then 'Yeah Dad.'

My parents were working class folks. My dad was a bartender for most of his life my mom was a maid and a cashier and a stock clerk at WalMart. We were not people of financial means in terms of significant financial means. I always told them 'I didn't always have what I wanted. I always had what I needed.' My parents always provided that.

No I am not a homosexual. If I were a homosexual I would hope I would have the courage to say so. What's cruel is that you are forcing me to say I am not a homosexual. This means you are putting homosexuals down. I don't want to do that.

Success means having the courage the determination and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

This soul or life within us by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

Courage means to keep working a relationship to continue seeking solutions to difficult problems and to stay focused during stressful periods.

Maybe you are the 'cool' generation If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in then it has my admiration.

In my books the technology that I choose to talk about has to serve the themes. What that means is that I end up having to cut out a lot of cool technology that would be really fun to describe and play with but which would just confuse everybody. So in 'Amped ' I focus on neural implants.

Survival in the cool economics of biology means simply the persistence of one's own genes in the generations to follow.

It's cool when fans spend so much time making things for me. It means a lot.

Music is for people. The word 'pop' is simply short for popular. It means that people like it. I'm just a normal jerk who happens to make music. As long as my brain and fingers work I'm cool.