--Societys Scapegoats--
~Huh Magazine, October 1996
MM:"Society has traditionally always tried to find scapegoats for its problems. Well, here I am."
--Fitting In--
~Kerrang Magazine September 20, 1997
MM:"I grew up feeling like I could never fit in no matter how hard I tried. One day, I realised that I didn't want to fit in. I could make my own standards and I'd live by them. That's what I try to tell people. Don't be afraid to say what's on your mind, and if it pisses someone off that's too bad. If you make everybody happy, you're an idiot."
--Thinking--
~British NME Interview August 30, 1997
MM:"I just try to make people think. I don't try to shock them or scare them. I just try and get them to question."
--About Rap Music--
~Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"The larger portion of it is not technically music. Music is defined by a melody and by lyrics. Most contemporary rap, by contrast, is base, simple, lowest-common-denominator noise that consists of people spending three and a half minutes bragging about how much money they don't really have, and about how many cars they don't really have the money to buy, and how many bitches and ho's they've been slapping around, to a drum-machine beat. It's not really advancing any sort of art form."
--Raising your Children--
~RIP Magazine February 1995
MM:"The message that I'm sending out to them is raise your kids better or I'll be raising them for you."
--Smoking--
~Underscope Magazine
MM:"I don't believe in cigarettes, in fact when people smoke, I can't hear what they're saying. I've fine tuned myself to shut out the words of smokers. So I miss out on a lot of conversations."
--About the Internet--
~SLC "F" Magazine
MM:"I'm not really into the internet, it just seems to be a gossip column for people who have nothing else to do with their lives, but I'm sure they can turn it into something good eventually."
--Jeans--
~Kerrang Magazine November 1996
MM:"The most outrageous thing I could imagine ever doing is putting on a pair of jeans and going to the shopping mall for my lunch. That would be pretty gross."
--So what do you hate?--
~Details Magazine December 1996
MM:"I hate when I go somewhere and people are smiling and laughing and having a good time. It makes me depressed."
--What shocks you?--
~Guitar World December 1996
MM:"I get shocked by people smoking cigarettes sometimes. I get shocked by watching talk shows. Peoples moralities are so far below what I would consider standard. SAT results should be directly linked to a death sentence. Those who don't reach a certain score would be executed."
--Creativity--
~Huh Magazine October 1996
MM:"If someone listen's to our music, and it makes them creative, that makes me happier than anything."
--Having Kids--
~September 24, 1994
MM:"Yeah I do want to have kids someday and I would show them everything. I wouldn't hold anything back from them. I think if you show kids reality and stop trying to protect them from it, then they can handle it."
--Shock Value--
~Guitar World Magazine December 1996
MM:"If I wanted to be purely shocking I could do much more that would be offensive. I just try to express myself in a particular way that grabs peoples attention. But it's never about shock value. It's a vehicle to express myself and get people to listen. There's so much out there to see, you really have to make things powerful in order for them to leave a mark. Everybody has an image. Ours is just more flamboyant. There are much more bands out there that have much more stronger and offensive images than we do. But the thing is. Nobody cares because they don't have the same songs to support it."
--On America--
~Alternative Press April 1996
MM:"I think our band is simply America at its truest. Caffeine, sugar, violence, drugs--these are all the things we were raised on. And as things start to get more and more out of hand in America, everyone's trying to take it all back and give you Nutrasweet and PG-13 and safe sex, but how can they take it away and try to start over? It's like we're listening to a cassette tape of the end of the world. I just want to fast forward it and turn it up louder."
--Scapegoat--
~Alternative Press April 1996
MM:"People love to scapegoat and shove the responsibility off on somebody else. Parents are always blaming heavy metal and horror movies for teen suicide, but it's the deprivation of things that the kids love that drives them to these desperate means, I think. It's not in the music, it always starts in the family. And anyway, I've always said if more people killed themselves over heavy metal that's fine, too. It's just less stupid people in the world."
--America The Confusing--
~Alternative Press April 1996
MM:"Don't get me wrong, because I love paradoxes, but America's so confusing. Capitalism tells you if you work hard enough you'll be better than the next guy, but everyone's created equal. So what's it gonna be? And everyone's so down on child pornography, but then the big thing, just a year ago, was the waif model, who looked like a 14-year-old, flat-chested and skinny, dressed like a schoolgirl. I mean, they send out so many mixed messages it's no wonder there's Ted Bundys and Jeffrey Dahmers - they don't know what else to do. It's no wonder everyone wants to kill themselves and kill everyone else."
--Love and Hate--
~Metal Edge Magazine
MM:"The opposite of love is apathy, and hate is really the same as love. If you're so consumed by hatred for someone, you might as well be loving them, because you're thinking about them for the same amount of time."
--Examples--
~Houston Chronicle April 4, 1998
MM:"If I can be an example at all, it's in the direction of raising kids with intelligence."
--Rocky Horror Picture Show--
~Raygun Magazine - November 1998
MM:"Tim Curry, a hot number. I would have liked him to shave his armpits though. I'm not a big on them. I shave mine. I can't even look at myself with armpit hair. Disgusting."
--Pepsi or Coke--
~FHM Magazine - November 1998
MM:"I don't drink Pepsi. I hate the way it represents the next generation of smiling people. Now coke, it even sounds like a narcotic. Plus, it has fascist coloring. You really have to bow to Coca-Cola."
--Q:"What’s your favorite comedy on TV?--
MM:"The Jerry Springer show. It shows how low we Americans have sunk. It’s now evolved to the point where they should give people handguns and let them go on there and shoot each other. I think that would be very American."
--Q: And what else disgusts you?--
MM:"Excessive body hair. And people who live up to stereotypes. People who perpetuate ignorance disgust me too."
--Q: Have you watched Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory recently?--
MM:"I watch it every once in a while. I still think it holds up as one of the greatest films of all time - it contains so many interesting messages presented to children in the guise of an innocent story."
--Being a Rock Star--
~Marilyn Manson
MM:"I view my job as being someone who is suppose to piss people off. I don't want to be just one-of-the-guys. I don't want to be just a smiling face you see on television presenting some vapid kind of easily-digestible garbage.This is rock and roll. I want to be a rock and roll star! Rock and roll is about shaking things up, making people act and react. That's what I do."
--President Manson--
~Pulse Magazine October 1998
MM:"You should have to pass an IQ test before you breed. You have to take a driving test to operate vehicles and an SAT test to get into college. So why don't you have to take some sort of test before you give birth to children? When I become president, that's the first rule I will institute."
--Q: Do you ever look at the unofficial websites for Marilyn Manson?"--
MM:"I do, and there's a lot of them that I appreciate. One of the strongest ones, that I think, interprets a lot of the things that I say very accurately is www.angelmanson.com. I think that they're all great. I think that they all have different strengths, obviously, and different weaknesses. And I think that they're all very important. The purpose of my website is so that we can have direct communication with each other."
--Suicide--
Official Website Interview September 9, 1998
--Q: Does it bother you when you're blamed for kids committing suicide?"--
MM:"It bothers me that someone could grossly misinterpret something enough to kill themselves. But I don't think that anything I've ever said would encourage that. I think that everything I've ever said has been a fight for life, has been me struggling to keep my head above water. I think that I've always discouraged weakness. I think I've always discouraged pitiful escapes like suicide, regardless of how many times I myself and everyone around me has considered thoughts like that."
--Did you go to High School prom?--
~Official Website Webcast - Part 2 - September 18, 2000
MM:"No I didn't. Nobody wanted to go with me, and I probably wouldn't have went even if someone did, because I don't like dancing and smiling and things that go on at proms. But they can be fine, I guess, if you want to do that."
--Eminem--
~Official Website Webcast - Part 2 - September 18, 2000
MM:"Last year my video was pulled from MTV because of Columbine. It wasn't much for me to support, other than the fact that Eminem had achieved such a great success. And I chose to work with him, because, the fact that someone like him has the balls to do what they do helps all of us. What people need to look beyond is whether you disagree or agree with his opinions. The fact that he's allowed to have his opinion is important for everyone. That's my feelings towards him. I like what he does, and I like the fact that he's allowed to do it. That doesn't mean I always agree with him, but I think it's important that people like him, people like myself are able to say what they think. And I think that it's important that you say what you think as well, and hopefully this site and the rest of the internet gives you that opportunity."
--Human Evolution--
~Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"I'm amazed to see how backward humans have gone on the evolutionary chart."
--Bad Grammar--
~Talk Magazine - November 2000
MM:"One thing that offends me is bad grammar. That makes me more pissed than anything in the world, as someone who respects the educational system or someone who just respects the way things are intended to be in America. We have the ability. There's no reason that people cant simply use decent grammar."
--Concert Outfits--
~Sonicnet.com - October 27, 2000
MM:"I wanted to make clothing from things people found useless or ugly. I try to add a new beauty to things like horses' tails, goat skins, ostrich spines and things like that. It's kind of exotic. It's not really that grotesque. It does have a bit of road-kill element to it."
--Columbine--
MM:"What they didn't understand, for the very same reason I started Marilyn Manson and the name Marilyn Manson itself is a comment on this exact subject, is that you encourage this type of behaviour, because you glamorise it. You glamorise villains as much as you do movie stars. The kids that did the shooting were on the cover on 'Time' magazine twice, but the victims weren't. That right there is a simple statement on the way that America behaves."
--Contradictions--
MM:"...even on our first record, there's a song, 'Get Your Gunn', that was talking about the hypocrisy that someone would assassinate an abortion doctor because they believed in pro-life. I mean, it's such a ridiculous contradiction."
--Columbine--
~Guardianunlimited.co.uk - November 4, 2000
MM:"I saw it happen live on TV and I said immediately, 'They're going to blame me for this.' Five minutes later, I heard the reporter say, 'The killers were wearing white make-up and Marilyn Manson T-shirts.' All completely untrue, as it turned out. I mean, they didn't even like me. I looked into it after it happened: they weren't wearing make-up, they weren't goth kids. These were white, urban kids, pretty well-off, with no apparent reason to go on a killing spree. They weren't white trash nor ghetto kids, and I think that was difficult for America to take. It raised some hard questions about our society but, of course, the knee-jerk response prevailed - 'Who's to blame? Let's get the weirdo.' The way I see it, the mass psychology is - as long as America can find a bad guy, everyone can feel safe. It's that simple."
