145 Quotes by Serj Tankian

The living ideas of the dead are more powerful and effective than the dead ideas of the living.

With rock music, the amount of power that you can generate, the intensity behind the intentions of your lyrics that you can really reflect through rock music - you can't do that in jazz. You can't do that with classical.

Pretending that we live doesn't make us alive.

The best way to do that is to pick up a new instrument or an instrument that you don't typically write on and see where it takes you. Whether it's using an acoustic guitar, or piano, or electronics as tools, all of these lead to creating different types of songs and I used all of these methods for this record.

The percentage of Americans in the prison system, has doubled since 1985.

People think our music's very aggressive or angry or whatever, and it's just the opposite, really... I like laughing. And I like being really calm before a show, and smiley.

I think that the memory of Armenia's genocide opened my eyes at an early age to the existence of political cynicism.

You listen to Bob Dylan and you can't help but think of the 60s, it's very relational and if artists are true artists and not just mere musicians they need to be truthful because the music doesn't come from them it comes from the universe and it's to be shared. At best, we're skilled presenters, and I say that at best.

The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth.