"The people who send us fan mail written in blood say the nicest things, so it doesn't freak us out too much."
"I grew up watching MTV, so it's very surreal to me to think that there might be someone out there watching MTV, looking at us the way I used to look at Davis Madonna and Duran Duran videos."
"People do get ridiculed for liking us or because they look the way they do and they're a part of what we do."
"I've heard there are vegan corn dogs - I don't know if that's true but, jeez, I'd love to eat one of them."
"I just heard a story from someone the other day where somebody was beaten up by Christians for wearing one of our shirts. Of course, that's a very Christian thing to do."
"I mean that'd be great if we could continue to be staples of alt-rock radio. I don't take that for granted."
"As far commercial success, I don't think that's a focus but it's not that we don't enjoy that. It's not something you can attempt and achieve."
"For us, the pressure comes from internal matter of having recorded eight records."
"When I was sent to public school, I was relieved that I could wear what I wanted to wear."
"Personally I have never found the practice of recreational drug use appealing. In fact, I have always found the lifestyle and the people who surround it to be abhorrent."
"I became a vegetarian out of compassion for animals and to live as healthy as possible. I realized soon after that I was truly concerned with nonviolent consumption and my own health, a vegan diet was the best decision."
"I find drug use disrespectful, self-destructive, and weak. I want no part of it."
"I'm an extremist, I have to deal with my own extreme personality, and I walk the fine line of wanting to die and wanting to be the ruler of it all."
"I was the freak who moved into the nice neighborhood."
"It's a wonderful side effect of what we're doing, to give someone the strength to come out of the closet to their family, or simply present themselves aesthetically in a way they feel happy with, whether or not their friends are going to be allowed to like them anymore."
"I heard recently that I used to date Patrick Swayze."
"There are only a few places that I go where people recognize me anyway. I have to be at the right place, in the right city. It's not really that much of an issue."
"That type of autograph, pictures and apparel thievery was not part of what I grew up with. I loved the artists and their music. I would be thrilled to meet them, but the thought of getting a scribble or stealing an article of clothing never occurred or appealed to me."
"But when I cut off my hair I even had friends not recognize me."
"I attribute a lot of the success to Live 105, of course, because it's something they've nurtured and grown."
"Ska is fine. Punk is fine. Putting those two together drove us crazy."
"I've never been drunk. I've never even had a beer."
"Whatever show I go to, no matter what it is - and I go to a lot of them - people say, 'Wow, I'd never expect to see you here.' I always say, 'Where do you expect to see me?'"
"Straight edge came out of the hardcore scene. I don't necessarily believe, as some people believe, that you have to be a part of the hardcore scene to share that philosophy and stance against recreational drug use. But it is where it came from, and it is where it influenced me to be a part of it."
"Even within the context of the alternative scene I was a part of, within punk and hardcore and the alt scene, there was a focus on self-destruction."
