When I drink a Glass of water, it's thick and crawling with life. My mouth leads to the interior of my body - a caldron of disease, germs, and perver….

Playing an old record doesn't interest me at all. It's exactly the opposite of what I want to do..

I used to routinely break my ribs doing stupid things onstage, but I have a healthy fear of breaking my bones now..

I have my own record company. I have to answer to God, basically. I'm not young, so I want to make the best possible work I can before I exit..

Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments..

The goal is ecstasy, but I don't want to make some sort of saccharine pop music. I want to make something that's completely uncompromising: the best ….

I'm pretty confident that people are going to come along for the ride. If they don't, tough..

I like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound. But I can't find myself in a situation where our ba….

I don't want to sound like everybody else..

Nina Simone was an entertainer. Bob Dylan was an entertainer. Anyone that can occupy a piece of music and make the air catch on fire at that moment i….

The music takes you. It has to be alive. It's like you hammer something, and the way it happens to bleed leads you into new directions..

I'm always trying to push myself into unfamiliar places with the music, sometimes without success, I have to admit. But I'd rather be there than rely….

I really wanted to get to the animal core of rock music and eliminate anything that wasn't necessary..

You find ways to push yourself into the sound through repetition. It doesn't stay the same. It morphs constantly..

I am definitely less and less interested in music made by people that exist today, people that are living. I just see them as part of the whole stupi….

You make your work and you can't ask for approval when you're doing it. Otherwise, it's going to be untruthful in some way..

I wanted to challenge myself and move into something new. I felt that using the name Swans and the sonic attitude that that engenders was what I need….

When I walk around New York now, there are so many ghosts. I find it very uncomfortable. There were many hard years, and I never really achieved any ….

I'm the band leader. That's not to say that the other people are my minions - they all put in a tremendous amount of personality, and push the music ….

When I first started doing the quieter, more acoustic material in Swans, there was a lot of derision and outright hatred from the audience and press,….

The sexuality of children - there's a lot friction there. That tension interests me a lot..