Collected Quotes: Letting It All Hang Out

Best Of (On Kurt Cobain) […] I think there’s no getting around that twenty-something roadblock. That point in your life […] when [you] have to take a massive reality check. You finally have to face the fact that things are never going to be the way you thought they would be. It’s at this point…

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[…] Clothes aren’t just things you wear—they bring out the flavor of that person, magnifying hidden areas of your personality that spend most of the time cooped up in the cellar of your consciousness.
“Lettin It All Hang Out.” – Page IX

My immediate family, who were my role models and heroes, were all feminine. They were showing their emotions and wearing them in the same way they wore their clothes; when they were sad they cried, when something was funny they laughed out loud, and when something confused them they asked questions.
“Lettin It All Hang Out.” – Page IX

I truly believe […] thoughts trapped inside the body, manifest themselves as physical ailments. So it’s important to heal those thoughts by bringing them back up to the surface from the cellar of your heart where you’ve locked them away. By doing that you can change your perception of how things are and let go of the old perception. And if you don’t do that those thoughts can poison and kill you–body and soul.
“Lettin It All Hang Out.” Page 31

(On Kurt Cobain) […] I think there’s no getting around that twenty-something roadblock. That point in your life […] when [you] have to take a massive reality check. You finally have to face the fact that things are never going to be the way you thought they would be. It’s at this point that you have to abandon many of the romantic ideas you had growing up and that’s hard because, until now, you’ve staked your life on them. Now, of course, this isn’t an insurmountable problem; in fact it’s a great opportunity for a richer and more challenging vision of life. But imagine if you had success at a young age, and you’re a star, and everyone’s telling you that you’re wonderful, fantastic. There’s just one catch: you don’t feel like a star, and you don’t feel wonderful or fantastic. In fact you don’t even feel like a human being. Each morning you wake up feeling like shit and thinking, ‘Is this all there is?’ because all the glamour and the applause doesn’t feel like you thought it would. In fact, it doesn’t feel like anything at all. And if everyone’s telling you how good you’ve got it, how successful you are, how much you have achieved, well, that must leave a pretty bitter taste in your mouth. At least if you’re down and out and feeling suicidal at twenty-eight, you can steel yourself with the hope that things will get better. But if you’re twenty-eight and at the top, you must not only feel pretty disappointed but also trapped for the only way for you to go is down. At least that’s my analysis.
“Lettin It All Hang Out.” Page 186-187

Frankly, at this point I must say that my path to money, success, fame, and glamour had been a long and winding one. Although all the detours along the way built character, between you and me a more direct route to the top would have been welcome.
“Lettin It All Hang Out.” Page 83

I’ve never been good with cliques. Cliques are all about people trying to find security in groups. ‘Oh, I’m special now because I’m part of this clique.’ But it’s really just the emperor’s new clothes. People aren’t really together in cliques, and the sense of security that they feel is just an illusion. Eventually, all cliques disintegrate. That’s why I’ve always felt secure in my insecurity.
“Lettin It All Hang Out.” Page 60