Neil Morneau’s Reviews > Down with the System: A Memoir > Status Update

“The importance of having the guts to say ‘yes’ to the things that turn you on is matched only by the impact of learning to say ‘no’ to the things that don’t.”

“‘Shut up and sing’ is really a comment that comes from someone struggling to reconcile the fact that the artist they admire have political beliefs that are different from their own. Rather than examining the validity of those beliefs, they try to shut down the conversation before it starts.”

“The product, whether it was a Sandcastle, a painting, or an album only offers an illusion of permanence. These too will eventually decompose and disappear. Albeit on a different timeline. The art is always in the doing and not the memorializing.”

“the revelation that those in charge might not have your best interests in mind, that they might, in fact be lying to you for their own greedy, selfish reasons, is in someways the founding doctrine of rock ‘n’ roll.”

“Once you’ve had the experience of bombs raining down on you, it’s impossible to think of military campaigns the same way. For most people on the ground, war is not an academic or geopolitical experience. It’s a deeply personal one. Once you’ve lived with the random indifferent specter of death hanging over you, it’s an every day terror you never really relinquish.”

“I have never wanted to be one of those vacant souls who speaks to millions but talks to no one.”

Toxicity hit number 1 on the charts on September 11th 2001.