Ian MacKaye Quotes

Quotes about:

• If You Want To Rebel Against Society, Don’t Dull The Blade

  Ian MacKaye

  Rebel, Dull, Want

  42 Copy quote

• An unlocked door means that, occasionally, you might get a devil come in, but a locked door means you have thousands of angels just walk by.

  Ian MacKaye

  Mean, Angel, Doors

  54 Copy quote

• People ask me: ‘What is punk? How do you define punk?' Here's how I define punk: It's a free space. It could be called jazz. It could be called hip-hop. It could be called blues, or rock, or beat. It could be called techno. It's just a new idea. For me, it was punk rock. That was my entrance to this idea of the new ideas being able to be presented in an environment that wasn't being dictated by a profit motive.

  Ian MacKaye

  Rocks, Ideas, Space

  30 Copy quote

• I never imagine myself as anything. I've never had a goal or any future vision at all. I just do what's in front of me.

  Ian MacKaye

  Goal, Vision, Imagine

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  16 Copy quote

• Skateboarding is not a hobby. And it is not a sport. Skateboarding is a way of learning how to redefine the world around you. For most people, when they saw a swimming pool, they thought, ‘Let's take a swim.' But I thought, ‘Let's ride it.' When they saw the curb or a street, they would think about driving on it. I would think about the texture. I slowly developed the ability to look at the world through totally different means.

  Ian MacKaye

  Sports, Mean, Swimming

  56 Copy quote

• To me, music is no joke and it's not for sale.

  Ian MacKaye

  Music Is, Jokes

  9 Copy quote

• I think it's my nature to engage in things that are more difficult.

  Ian MacKaye

  Thinking, Difficult

  Source: www.avclub.com

  5 Copy quote

• I appreciate the past, but I want to make new things. That's the problem with the sack on the back - if you carry it around with you, it's like you get hobbled.

  Ian MacKaye

  Past, Appreciate, Problem

  4 Copy quote

• The only thing that drives music is the people who are making it.

  Ian MacKaye

  People, Music Is

  Source: www.avclub.com

  8 Copy quote

• I think that people are constantly thinking about capturing things that they're not actually present for the moment they're trying to capture. I'm quite sure of this. I think it's insane how many pictures have to be taken these days. We have to realize there's a level of documentation that's just chatter, it's noise, and beyond that, people who are truly documenting are going to have to find a way to puncture that.

  Ian MacKaye

  Taken, Thinking, People

  "Ian MacKaye, D.C. Rocker’s Library Of Congress Lecture: The Most Interesting Snippets" By Will Wrigley, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 14, 2013.

  36 Copy quote

• I think that the idea of straight edge, the song that I wrote, and the way people have related it it, there's some people who have abused it, they've allowed their fundamentalism to interfere with the real message, which in my mind, was that people should be allowed to live their lives the way they want to.

  Ian MacKaye

  Song, Real, Thinking

  Scene Point Blank Interview, www.scenepointblank.com. October 16, 2010.

  24 Copy quote

• "Straight Edge" was a song about my life. There was no structure, no premise as if I was forming a club. There were no tenets. I mean I wrote a song called "Straight Edge," I'll take that, but the song was about my life the way I wanted to live it.

  Ian MacKaye

  Song, Mean, Way

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  4 Copy quote

• What does bother me is that I have to spend time and energy dealing with the ramifications of what people do think about me.

  Ian MacKaye

  Thinking, People, Energy

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  6 Copy quote

• I'm all for file sharing. That's great - as long as people are prepared for the significant consequences. One is that music will become completely couched in advertising. That's already happened. And another is that people should be prepared to have fun with the past because the only music that can possibly be free is the music that's from the past. It costs money to make music. And if people are prepared to only have the past to listen to, then let it be free.

  Ian MacKaye

  Fun, Past, Long

  5 Copy quote

• Every song I ever wrote, I wrote to be heard. So, if I was given a choice that 50 years from now I could either have a dollar or knowing that some kid was listening to my song, I'd go with the kid listening to my song.

  Ian MacKaye

  Song, Kids, Years

  "Ian MacKaye, D.C. Rocker’s Library Of Congress Lecture: The Most Interesting Snippets" By Will Wrigley, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 14, 2013.

  24 Copy quote

• I do feel like I have always, in my life, been inclined to be on the outside, walk a different path or something. Because of that, and increasingly over the years, my sense of distance from mainstream society or from the way culture works, I have a different kind of perception of it.

  Ian MacKaye

  Distance, Mainstream Society, Years

  7 Copy quote

• That's a Roman concept where the government can do anything, as long as you give the people "bread and circuses." And I'd say this culture right now is similar, as long as people have money, fun, and food, our government can do heinous, heinous things.

  Ian MacKaye

  Fun, Thinking, Government

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  21 Copy quote

• We play loud electric guitar music, and we'd hope that that doesn't mean you have to act like an asshole.

  Ian MacKaye

  Mean, Guitar Music, Play

  16 Copy quote

• I don't think it's an ethical or moral issue, or even that people are stupid, but I do feel like as a culture things are out of balance, perverted, and inverted. Things that are ridiculous are worshipped, and things that are important are ridiculed. I think that's something worth thinking about.

  Ian MacKaye

  Stupid, Thinking, Issues

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  14 Copy quote

• I'm not a sports dude, but I'm interested in the sociological implications of it.

  Ian MacKaye

  Sports, Sociological, Implications

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  4 Copy quote

• Yeah, if someone's selling downloads and collecting money for our songs I would be unhappy about that but if they're trading it I don't mind, obviously if I make a thousand records or CDs or whatever, I like to sell a thousand.

  Ian MacKaye

  Song, Cds, Mind

  8 Copy quote

• There are many things that people do happily that I can't imagine why they would do it... But I have to say that even though I am critical or judgmental of society at large, I'm not critical of people individually. We are who we are.

  Ian MacKaye

  People, Who We Are, Judgmental

  15 Copy quote

• Part of the way the work world works is not so much creating a separation between your work and your free time, but creating the illusion of a separation between your work and your free time. Every day is the weekend for me, which means I'm always busy.

  Ian MacKaye

  Mean, Weekend, Creating

  25 Copy quote

• Music is a language and different people who come along are each using that language to do something different, but all coming at it in a similar vein inasmuch as it's always community based and for the most part nonprofit. Most bands don't ever come within a mile of profit - clearly these people are not playing music to make money.

  Ian MacKaye

  People, Community, Playing Music

  18 Copy quote

• I just have work to do; I just do it.

  Ian MacKaye

  Just Do It

  "A Conversation with Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson". Spin Interview, www.spin.com. July 22, 2003.

  16 Copy quote

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