Gene simmons quotes

My hero is me. Why? Because I was a poor little kid who was told, `Hey stupid, can`t you speak English?` Now all those people work for me. Despite whatever circumstances I came across, I was always able to rise to the top and there`s only one way to do that - by being selfish, but also by believing in yourself. Belief is self-knowing. Even Yoda out of Star Wars said, `Do or do not. There is no try.

I don't wait for the calendar to figure out when I should live life.

You know why I'm pulling your leg? Because I can't touch it from where I am.

Rock stars are idiots. You know that! Remember this moron never went to music school, never learned music theory and can't read or write music. So why not be suspicious of everything this idiot says?

Never negotiate with kids. They don't have life experience, and they don't have repercussions for bad decisions; they still get fed and housed.

In time of war, if you go through a bad neighborhood, I don't want a little French poodle, I want a Rottweiler on my hands.

If you look at YOURSELF as the brand, then you will understand an intrinsic truth: People judge.

William Shakespeare sounds to me like some kind of faggot.

The Beatles weren't like any other band. Everybody in the band sang, which is why you knew everybody in the band.

When you walk through a bad neighborhood, you don't want a poodle by your side. You want a Rottweiler.

Before you go out there and try to conquer the universe... get your act together.

When you're busy doing your own stuff it's like running a race. You try not to look over your shoulder to see who else is in the race, you do the best you can.

It is really sad for the new artists. Where's the next Elvis, where's the next Beatles, where's the Zeppelin? They're out there but they don't have a chance because once upon a time we [musicians of the 60s] had record companies, and they would support you and have point of purchase material and they would give you advances. In other words, they gave you the air to breathe to find yourself and spend the time to learn how to run.

I hope the guy who came up with the phrase 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' rots in hell, I'd like to change it so it makes more sense: 'sex death and rock 'n' roll'

The only thing wrong with marriage is that one of the persons involved is a man.

Unless you took courses in architecture, engineering, or pre-med, the rest of your liberal arts education hardly prepares you for life as the business warrior and champion you envision yourself to be.

If you're a man in your twenties or thirties, and you have yet to make your fortune, I would urge you not to get married.

I love money, I love women, I like to work hard and I don't use drugs.

I have sold my soul to the devil.

Prince, sad to say, has passed on!!!He was a Giant. My deep condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.

People are only what we believe them to be.

I also learned that I love making money. Anyone who is not afraid of work will be happy with the money they make.

The death of rock was not a natural death. Rock did not die of old age. It was murdered.

I know that you like to see a man in the kitchen, but I'm skeptical of men who cook. A man should be focusing his attention on the woman, and not what's on the stove.

You always start off with passion and the people that have it.

Anyone who tells you they got into rock'n'roll for reasons other than girls, fame and money is full of s***.

Life is too short to have anything but delusional notions about yourself.

To be in a band on the road is to have anything and everything you want just by picking up the phone.

Anybody who picks up a guitar and tells you that there's some inner message that they're trying to convey... it's nonsense. They're not being honest. The reason they're doing this is they wanna get lots of chicks and they don't want to work for a living.

When I meet a woman, I don't think, 'Gee, I wonder if she's read the latest thesis by Stephen Hawking? I think, 'Great tits.'

If you choose to become a smoker, you are an idiot, and you may lack the discipline and intelligence to be a successful entrepreneur.

Live well - respire frequently.

Rock is about finding who you are. You don't necessarily have to play your instrument very well at all. You can just barely get by and you can be in a rock band.

Rock bands are a lot like football teams: If a guy is on drugs and messes up, get someone else who's proud to wear the uniform and be part of the team.

I'm forbidden fruit. Once you go to certain households, mommy doesn't want you to see that dirty man who sticks his tongue out and spits out blood and all that stuff.

Kiss is the number-one American band in gold-record sales. In the world, only the Beatles and the Stones are ahead of us. Every other band should be wiping my ass. The line forms over there to the left.

You and I and everyone else have the attention span of gnats. And that means that saying or doing anything once simply doesn't work.

Trees acquire strength by growing slowly and flexing with the pressures of nature. Us too.

Sugar-free ice pops are an invention of God. They hardly have any calories since they're mostly water. I eat about 15 pops every two days.

I refuse to stand up in front of a rabbi and my friends and the woman I love - who I will tell you I can love with all my heart - and promise she will be the only one I will ever have until the day I die. Thats a lie.

Men want success and sex. Women want everything.

The most important word in American, in Western culture, is "I."

England is a profoundly bizarre place that has produced thousands of bands the world has worshipped.

I'm fascinated with myself and love hearing the sound of my own voice. I'd like to hear what I have to say. A lot of people don't like being alone because they truly don't like themselves, but I love me.

I don't wanna go on vacation. There's nothing about it that appeals to me. People look forward to doing that; I look forward to getting up every day and doing something.

No one has the right to shake his finger in your face.

There are many really stupid ideas that wind up being brilliant, if you can implement them.

Nobody does just one thing. But the real difference between being an entrepreneur and everyone else in the world is the ability to monetize. I am an entrepreneur in the classic mold.

My mother had a horrific life. At fourteen, she was in the Nazi concentration camps. Her sense about life now is, every day above ground is a good day.

Let's say you're a garage mechanic, and you have big dreams about opening up your own chain of branded garages around the country. Terrific.

There are no limitations to any of our dreams.

Believe me, the library is the temple of God. Education is the most sacred religion of all.

The problem you ultimately want to have, as an entrepreneur, is deciding who to help, not deciding who can help you.

Better to discuss everything out in the open while you're in love, then if or when the relationship sadly ends. It's called Full Disclosure Before The Fact.

After 9/11, people all of a sudden became patriotic and showed the colors. Why did it take something bad to happen? It means something. People have died for it, and continue to do so.

It's easy to be drowned out by the crowd, but to thine own self be true, say I, no matter what everybody says, no matter what the popular vibe is.

Fans like their heroes simple. I'm supposed to stick out my tongue twenty-four hours a day and do nothing else.

Within the perfect situation, not everything is perfect.

Fiscally, I'm very conservative. I don't believe in welfare states. I believe in giving people jobs.

Kiss is not a charity. Never, ever mix commerce and charity.

I crave ideas, and when an idea hits me, it grips me and it tortures me until I master it.

Get rid of the friends who want you to spend your whole day doing nothing with them. They're not your friends. They're your enemies.

My background is full of pain. My mother was in a Nazi concentration camp and our whole family was killed off. Then early on your father leaves and all you've got is your mother, and I was an only child. Then you come to a new country and I can't speak English.

If you look at the CEOs of some the most successful companies in the world like IKEA, they never fly first class. They always go economy.

When you're dead you don't have a mental problem.

Your date will not be impressed by you throwing up on her brand-new shoes, as you spout poetic babblings that are meaningful only to you.

Our perception of yesterday is the foundation for our expectations of tomorrow.

Music is the only industry where you don't need to know what you're doing to get ahead. Well, that and politics.

You have to understand that nothing appeals to everybody.

Television and comic books are, and continue to be, probably the biggest influence in my life. It's the biggest influence on everybody's life.

Kiss is a Fourth of July fireworks show with a backbeat.

People who are the salt of the earth get up and go to a job that they hate.

You don't need jails, you get put a thousand miles into the middle of Australia, you can go wherever you want, go ahead, but if you come into a city it's straight to jail.

I like to approach every day like it's the only day I will ever have.

When you really think about it, I'm not delusional enough to think that what I do is important to life as we know it on this planet. No. But neither is what you do.

If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs.

Our job is to leave the world a little better than we found it. Not the same... not worse... better.

Most people are so busy living they neglect to take the time to ask why.

If you're lucky, you don't think in a straight line.

The only jobs kids have are to do well in school, to be charming and polite, and be thankful. That's it. I'll house you, protect you, I'll even give my life for you, and in return, you will behave.

James Bond has a license to kill, rockstars have a license to be outrageous. Rock is about grabbing people's attention.

I don't speak cockney and I don't pretend to come from that part of the world. For the longest time the English, like the Beatles and so on sounded American. "She loves you yeah yeah yeah!" All of the sudden you sound American. It doesn't work that way with Americans who try to sing English. It's not convincing. If I say "Footy" and "tele" and "Brissy" and "Sydney" and "Simmo" it's not convincing.

The sad thing is most people have to check with someone before they do the things that make them happy. We're all passing through; the least we can do is be happy, and the only way to do that is by being selfish.

You can't start motoring up life's road until you get your buns in gear.

I'm aware, as a sane person, that I'm not the best-looking guy in the world. I'm aware of it. But when I go into a party, I will walk out with your girlfriend.

I worship scones and danishes. If I never had another meal, I wouldn't care as long as I could eat pastries and jelly doughnuts.

I was never interested in being a rock star. I always wanted to be Boris Karloff.

Women, you have all this power, I'm telling you. In business, you have something called an inferred fiduciary duty to yourself. Look at the other hugely successful women in industry, commerce, science and everywhere else and you'll see women who are feminine, beautiful but also do not rely on men for their self-empowerment.

My skin is more beautiful than yours. I would be quite more popular in jail if I so chose.

Ladies, first and foremost: you're on your own. No more rules neatly laid out for you to follow. You have to make up YOUR OWN rules.

The makeup is simply an extension of the personality and colors, clothing, makeup all express something.

There’s an old adage that says that money is the root of all evil. Bullshit. Lack of money is the root of all evil.

If a vacuum cleaner salesman rings your front door, he will be selling HIMSELF first. The vacuum cleaner is secondary.

I want to be dictator.

What we have is pretty meaningless. It's what we are that counts.

Belief is self-knowing. Even Yoda out of Star Wars said, 'Do or do not. There is no try.'

Before a show, you might have aches or pains, or it's a bad rainy day, or it's too humid. We all complain about stuff. But... how do I put this poetically? Once it's the roar of the crowd and the smell of the greasepaint, forget it. Once the adrenaline kicks in and your chest expands, you forget about all that.

Gene Simmons planned on being a success the moment he launched himself out of his mother's womb.

Elvis is the king of rock and roll, who made white kids shake their shackle.

You can't go through life and leave things the way they are. We can all make a difference, and if I die today, I know I made a difference.

If you're the greatest, it's okay to say you're the greatest. My suggestion to everybody is to be their own greatest fan. Weaker personas and personalities define that as egotistical or arrogant, but what it means is their self-esteem isn't that strong.

Recognize a rock 'n' roller for what he is, which is a damned lucky guy not to have to work for a living.

My mother is probably the wisest person I've ever known. She's not schooled, she's not well read. But she has a philosophy of life that makes well-read people seem like morons.

You can't rely on anything. At the end of the day, all you have is yourself.

I think I know it all, relatively speaking.

I wanted to be in a band that gave bang for the buck. I wanted to be in the band who didn't look like a bunch of guys who, you know, should be in a library studying for their finals.

Education, especially business education will only give you tools. What you do with these tools is all that matters. Life and business isn’t paint by numbers. You have to think for yourself. You have to invent yourself. You have an inferred fiduciary mandate to yourself, and that means, it’s your responsibility to learn people skills, and language skills, in order to increase your chances of success. You also have to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right thing. Mostly and invariably, the real product you’re going to be selling is….you.

Being a Jew, you realize your strongest weapon is your mind.

Despite what your girlfriend may have told you, size is important, bigger is better.

It's hard to see your destination when you're focused on the cracks in the sidewalk.

I don't know whether you [musician] can be all things to everybody, which is why there are different kinds of music.

First, when I was 12, I saw a Spanish girl jumping rope. I never saw her face, but it was still the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.

It's better to be an octopus than a fish. If an octopus loses a tentacle to a predator, the octopus will survive with seven tentacles left for itself.

Walk amongst the natives by day, but in your heart be Superman.

The root of all evil isn't money; rather, it's not having enough money.

I think that Shakespeare is a s***. Absolute s***! He may have been a genius for his time, but I just can't relate to that stuff. "Thee and thous" - the guy sounds like a faggot.

I fly economy. I do often fly first class, but I don't travel with a posse, or bodyguard, or an assistant.

Wealth for its own sake is an empty shell. Wealth that includes making other people's lives better will reward you even more than the beautiful mansion you live in.

A good marriage can be ruined by poor communications - and by forgetting to put the lid back down.

It's in the history books, the Holocaust. It's just a phrase. And the truth is it happened yesterday. It happened to my mother. I never met my grandfathers or my grandmothers. They were all wiped up in the gas chambers of Nazi Germany.

I'm pissed at a nickel because it isn't a dime.

I think it's pathetic that women and men treat each other worse than we treat our pets. It's love or hate.

I would recommend you watch the movie 'Jobs' starring Ashton Kutcher, if you don't have time to read Jobs's biography.

Fame is important, but to be rich is more important.

I voted for President Bush. I voted for President Clinton and although I do want my vote back, I voted for President Obama.