I don’t even know why I’m saying this in an interview situation, but I always feel like I’m not good enough for some reason. I wish that wasn’t the case, but left to my own devices, that voice starts speaking up. – Trent Reznor
I’ve learned to recognize, a lot of it forced through the process of recovery, that I’m wired wrong in certain ways; the chemical balance of my brain is off in terms of depression a little bit. – Trent Reznor
I’ve always been into computers. When I was getting out of high school and forming my identity musically, all of it was really coming into the fold, computers and drum machines. It felt like, you know, I’m in the right place at the right time. I liked the collision. – Trent Reznor
I do remember my first purchase: the Partridge Family’s ‘Greatest Hits.’ I got it for $3.99 at a failed chain of pre-Wal-Mart-type stores called Jamesway. God, I’m old. – Trent Reznor
Though I still have no semblance of a life outside of Nine Inch Nails at the moment, I realize my goals have gone from getting a record deal or selling another record to being a better person, more well-rounded, having friends, having a relationship with somebody. – Trent Reznor
I’ll be honest, watching the music industry collapse has been demoralizing and disheartening at times. – Trent Reznor
Being a rock & roll star has become as legitimate a career option as being an astronaut or a policeman or a fireman. – Trent Reznor
Any time I sit down and write music, the first part of that is always centering myself and thinking about who I currently am. – Trent Reznor
I do actually believe in love. I can’t say that I’m 100 percent successful in that department, but I think it’s one of the few worthwhile human experiences. It’s cooler than anything I can think of right now. – Trent Reznor
Jumping through any hoop or taking advantage of any desperate situation that comes up just to sell a product is harmful. It is. – Trent Reznor
You’re standing onstage in a sold-out arena with people singing your music, and you feel like the loneliest person in the world. Because here’s a party that, essentially, it’s for you. And you still somehow feel like you don’t belong there. Those people all have their lives and go back home. – Trent Reznor
Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is, ‘Oh, I’m on stage playing a song,’ because you’re daydreaming about something else, you’re on autopilot. You have to fight that. – Trent Reznor
I need boundaries. In the modern studio there are a bunch of instruments around me, and I can simulate anything I can’t play, so sometimes the palette feels too big. – Trent Reznor
I often find myself listening to a record because a lot of people or magazines have told me it’s good and I’m supposed to like it, and I try to stay in touch with what’s happening and I’m also a fan of music. I find myself trying to like something that I really don’t think is that great. – Trent Reznor
I think the reason I was 23 before I ever wrote a song was that I was afraid of testing myself. What would I do if I discovered I didn’t have anything to say? – Trent Reznor
Now U2’s not my favorite band, but I do respect them, and in the same way I respect Bowie: They change without fear of change. – Trent Reznor
‘Downward Spiral’ felt like I had an unending bottomless pit of rage and self-loathing inside me and I had to somehow challenge something or I’d explode. I thought I could get through by putting everything into my music, standing in front of an audience and screaming emotions at them from my guts. – Trent Reznor
One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, ‘Wait – you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it?’ – Trent Reznor
In Nine Inch Nails, I’ve been the guy calling the shots since inception. I’d gotten used to that. – Trent Reznor
I thought my goal in life was to be in a successful band, and I had got that, but I was as miserable as I had ever been, and I couldn’t understand why that would be. – Trent Reznor
There’s always been an element of ‘right time, right place’ to Nine Inch Nails. When we stepped onstage at Woodstock ’94, I could sense it. I get goosebumps thinking about it now. Like, ‘I don’t know how we did this, but somehow we’ve touched a nerve.’ – Trent Reznor
In my life, I was always floating around the edge of the dark side and saying what if take it a little bit too far, and who says you have to stop there, and what’s behind the next door. Maybe you gain a wisdom from examining those things. But after a while, you get too far down in the quicksand. – Trent Reznor
With a Nine Inch Nails show, I’m building on a legacy that comes with a certain set of expectations. I have to push that forward, I have to reinvent myself, I have to feel current and valid. – Trent Reznor
I think my music’s more disturbing than Tupac’s – or at least I thought some of the themes of ‘The Downward Spiral’ were more disturbing on a deeper level – you know, issues about suicide and hating yourself and God and people and everything else. – Trent Reznor
It’s one thing to sit back and say, ‘Hey let’s play a club, that will be great,’ but then you get there and say, ‘Hey wait, this is the dressing room? Where’s my dressing room?’ – Trent Reznor