I lived in Italy for quite a while and married an Italian woman. While there, I immersed myself in the complete culture: the music, art, literature, film, food, and history. It's easy to fall in love with. As a country, Italy does a good job of holding onto its rich traditions and culture. There's a real lack of embracing history in America.

Mike Patton

If I was in a bad mood, then maybe I won't talk about it, but you're going to know about it somehow. If something was bothering me, maybe I would have acted a little bit like a child, meaning I go break something in a room.

Mike Patton

You Would Won

We're constantly being fed images and being told what to like and what is good, and for the most part, I think people enjoy living that way. It takes a lot of the thinking out of it.

Mike Patton

Good Art Age

Most solo artists go out on their own and put their name on the record. I prefer to create little alternative universes.

Mike Patton

Art Verses Verse

I know where my bread is buttered, and for the most part, I'm better off doing my own thing.

Mike Patton

Art Where Uttered

More traditional guitar, bass, drums - it's not something completely natural to me. It's, in a way, exotic.

Mike Patton

Way Traditional Tradition

All time faves would be 'Smash TV,' 'NHL Hockey,' 'Grand Theft Autos,' 'NBA Lives,' 'Sonic.'

Mike Patton

Time Would TV

I've got a comfortable home for my music where I can put out whatever the hell I want, and I feel like the slate is really clean, and I can get away with anything. It's a nice, free feeling.

Mike Patton

Music Home Wit

There's a danger in anything that is unfamiliar. That's the world we live in.

Mike Patton

Anger World UN

A lot of concerts are just too safe.

Mike Patton

Us Too T

I have to make an effort about things like going to the grocery store. That stuff reminds me that I don't live in the real world, and you know what? I'm thankful.

Mike Patton

Thankful You World

With Mr. Bungle, I'd lay down a really rough demo of my vocals and then play them for the guys without telling them what I was saying. Our drummer at the time had the coolest takes on what he thought I was saying, so I'd ask him to write out what he thought the lyrics were.

Mike Patton

Time Cool Yin

Part of what Faith No More shows are is chaos and unpredictability.

Mike Patton

Faith Art Unpredictability

I think you create your own freedom.

Mike Patton

Freedom Your You

That's what my music is good for - clearing out the house and being alone.

Mike Patton

Music Good Alone

You don't have to release everything you do. Some ideas need to just stay on the shelf.

Mike Patton

You Very Us

Golf is the only sport I've encountered where you can really suck but still have a good time.

Mike Patton

Time Good You

I lived in Italy for quite a while and married an Italian woman. While there, I immersed myself in the complete culture: the music, art, literature, film, food, and history. It's easy to fall in love with. As a country, Italy does a good job of holding onto its rich traditions and culture. There's a real lack of embracing history in America.

Mike Patton

Music Love History

I've always been in awe of filmmakers and their patience in realizing their vision because I could never do that.

Mike Patton

Patience Ways Way

Things die for a reason, and in Bungle's case, it was a lot of reasons. It was great while it lasted but not something I'd go crawling back to.

Mike Patton

Great While UN

I'm at a point now where I crave healthy musical environments, where there is a genuine exchange of ideas without repressed envy or resentment, and where people in the band want to be there regardless of what public accolades may come their way. Unfortunately, Mr. Bungle was not one of those places.

Mike Patton

Music Men Health

I like to have a few things going on at once. It feels natural.

Mike Patton

'A Perfect Place' is character-driven. The director for that wanted a couple of identifiable themes with a bunch of variations. That is what I did. The director for 'The Solitude of Prime Numbers' did not want that at all.

Mike Patton

I know that whatever I put out, whether people think it's pop or noise or whatever, it's always going to be some kind of a freak or mutation. It's not going to be anything pure that a lot of people will relate to. And that's fine.

Mike Patton

My tools are musicians, effects, things like that.

Mike Patton

Most film scores have one vibe, and they stick with it.

Mike Patton

I lived in Bologna. I go back quite often, and I still have lots of connections and lots of friends. It was a nice period in my life.

Mike Patton

The Faith No More stuff isn't about me. It was a band. Maybe that's where a lot of journalists got the wrong idea. You don't just pluck a song off a tree and put vocals on it.

Mike Patton

I consciously did not want to put a sub-Mr. Bungle band on the map. I don't think the world needs that.

Mike Patton

The music should speak for itself, and hopefully it will.

Mike Patton

There are reasons that bands and musicians make demos and outtakes - because they are not good enough to make the record. A lot of people forget that.

Mike Patton

I have a big mouth.

Mike Patton

Everything with Peeping Tom is kind of a guessing game. It's constantly exhilarating but also exhausting.

Mike Patton

There are so many ideas that I have in my mind, of projects that I would love to tackle, people I would love to work with, genres I would love to experiment with, and sounds that don't fit any of my previous projects that I need to find a home for.

Mike Patton

I remember playing with John Zorn and Ikue Mori in Taiwan in a school classroom. There were, like, 15 people there, maybe, and they were sitting at the classroom desks, and we played under the chalkboard. There's no difference between playing that and the 'download' festival.

Mike Patton

The only way I can make sense of my music is to compartmentalize it as opposed to having one band that I have to throw everything into. For me, it's just more fun and more challenging to create little worlds where a song or a piece can make sense.

Mike Patton

I like the cut of my gib. I dislike the way I move.

Mike Patton

I don't read or write music in the traditional sense, so I have to figure it out on the fly while I'm in the studio.

Mike Patton

My fear is getting stuck doing the same thing over and over.

Mike Patton

I think you create your own boundaries, and you work within them.

Mike Patton

When you come into a pre-existing situation, you gotta have your own thing going. You gotta be really strong about it, and you gotta look at the older material in an aggressive way - 'I'm gonna make this mine somehow.' You need to put your imprint on the situation that you're in.

Mike Patton

I'm a little tired of travelling the world, jaded as that may sound.

Mike Patton

A lot of people assume that musicians are comrades by nature. It's cutthroat like anything else.

Mike Patton

Not all ideas are like a twinkling star in the sky, and you get inspired to make a record the next day.

Mike Patton

I really don't want to put more than a couple of records out a year, and I think that makes sense - on an artistic level, but also for my label.

Mike Patton

Some artists can work under one guise, whether it's a name or a band or doing film soundtracks, put all of their ideas in one pot and move on. Me, I need to compartmentalize.

Mike Patton

Forgive me, but Wolfmother, you suck!

Mike Patton

In a way, sometimes collaborating is more difficult because you have to listen.

Mike Patton

The creative process for a musician is very different than for a filmmaker. I have an idea, and I can pretty much execute it.

Mike Patton

I grew up in a really small town.

Mike Patton

Movies were, to me, like a way out. It was an escape valve. I remember having my parents drop me off at movies all the time.

Mike Patton