"I believe in individuality, being yourself, and to hell with what anybody else thinks about you."

"The older I get, the more I try to make my anger have a direction instead of just sort of wallowing in it."

[On being a sex symbol] ''It's weird. I mean, I consider myself kind of an ugly guy.''

"When I was a little kid doing air guitar to my favourite records, I never thought I'd be doing it with an actual guitar in font of 60,000 people."

"I write a lot about being a loser because I was conditioned to think that way."

"All problems are all the same essentially, they're just packaged differently the older that you get."

"My job description is that I'm a rock star. And I'm good at it."

[On sexual preference] "I really don't think you have to tell anybody about that. It's only sexuality, it doesn't have a lot to do with you as a person. I've never had to tell my mother about what I am. She's seen me kiss other guys and I'm married so I don't know what I would classify myself as...human? I garuntee everybody fantasizes about the same sex. It's only human."

[On the band's near breakup] "It was stuff like Tre telling me 'Welcome to Paradise' was a shitty song, and me getting pissed when they made fun of me."

"I may be immature, but I am responsible."

"I think I've always been bisexual."

"I'm not really educated enough to write about AIDS, but I could certainly write about losing someone who's close to me. I'm more the type of person who would write about how ignorant and stupid people are about something like AIDS."

"I fucking hate college students, to tell you the truth, because they've been able to go to school, get an education, live in the dorms, and get a free ride from their parents. I'm also envious, because I never had that opportunity to learn. I wrote a song on the new album called 'Brat' about waiting for your parents to die so you can get your inheritance. Which my son will probably be singing one day himself."

"The fucked-up thing about being famous and having money is that if you complain about something, people are like, 'What the fuck are you complaining about? You don't have to work a real job. You don't have to worry about money, or a place to live.' I feel like I don't have anyone to vent my frustrations to because they won't understand."

"Take Armatage Shanks, for example. When I wrote that song, it was right before Dookie came out, and I was really at odds with myself. I was like, man, do I really want to do this? A lot of the time I was thinking about suicide, how it's so easy to kill yourself, but so hard to stay alive. I was in a break-up with my then-girlfriend, a total, raving punk rocker who didn't approve of me being on a major label. She moved down to Ecuador, saying she couldn't live in a world with McDonald's and such. It was fucking me up pretty bad."

I think we're actually a very friendly band. How many other bands stop shows if they see a kid falling in the pit? A lot of bands don't care about that. I want everybody to have a good time at a concert. I don't want anybody getting hurt. That's punk, playing a show, having a party, having a good time.

"School for me, was holding me back from what I really wanted to do. I wanted to be in a band and I wanted to be a punk."

"I never thought that being obnoxious would get me where I am now."

"I hate celebrities. I really hate them."

"I actually have less friends now than I ever had."