There's a difference between standing up and telling people what you're planning to do and standing up and going and accomplishing something.
Paul Stanley
Democracy in the studio is overrated. What you wind up getting is compromise on everybody's part, which means that nobody has their way, and that means nobody wins, including the fans.
When you're in a position to have gotten so much, the gift at this point is giving back.
I tend to fly a bit under the radar.
I think KISS has always been about celebrating self-empowerment. Celebrating the idea that anything is possible with determination and hard work.
To go from being an unpopular, chubby little kid who was chasing girls and couldn't seem to catch them, to being chased after and making sure I ran slow enough that I did get caught, it was 180 degree turn. It was being given the keys to the candy store.
Doing my art came out of something very solitary and something that I had no intention of showing anybody, and yet once people saw pieces in my house, it became really clear that there was a great demand for my art.
Credibility is someone else's idea of what I should be doing.
Tooting my own horn is of no interest to me... it takes you away from real life. It's a waste, and I don't find a need to sing my own praises.
Whenever anybody comes to me with a way that I can give something back, it would be ungrateful at this point in my life to not say yes.
Autobiographies, for the most part, to me, are like writing a love letter to yourself.
What it comes down to is, Kiss has always been a beast that has this tendency to run wild, and it needs attention and nurturing. If people are always running off and doing other projects, which has been the case, somebody has to be there for stability.
It's absurd for anybody to look around and hear the acts and artists who cite us as an inspiration, and then tell me that we're not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I started working out, doing a formal workout right around 1980. That's when I really decided I needed to get in shape and it may have been because you just start to see a decrease - a change in your body.
I don't know what's more embarrassing, these musicians and actors talking about politics in interviews or the media actually giving them credibility about it. It's absurd that a celebrity could speak out on the economy or politics with no more justification than a hit album or a movie.
I'm a real foodie.
I think that ultimately - as I say to most of the people who are acquiring art - I can tell you my reality of a piece, but ultimately what's more important will be yours. I can tell you what a piece means to me, but just as valid if not more is what it means to you.
In terms of merchandise, you can't force anyone to buy something.
KISS has always been outside of the borders of what other bands can do. Not that some of these other bands wouldn't want to do it - the fact that they may snicker or look down their noses at what we do is more out of jealously than anything else.
The only exercise I got as a kid was fork to mouth. Food was equated with love in my household. I thought you left the table when the zipper was down and you'd explode if you took another bite. I'd eat my plate and then everyone else's leftovers.
A Kiss concert experience is like sex or anything else that's done with more that one person. It's the give and take that makes it so great. When the audience takes it to the next level, we can kick it up another notch.
I was a chubby boy. My pants used to wear out in the middle, and it was because my legs used to rub together. I wasn't obese, just chunky.
I never thought being the producer was being the dictator. It means being the director and being the coach. It's a way of keeping everybody focused on the goal, and also having final say. Everybody can be in the same car, but somebody has to drive.
Anybody with money can put on a KISS show, but they can't be KISS.
I am one of the biggest Laura Nyro fans. I still listen to that stuff incessantly. Laura Nyro does not belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Songwriter Hall of Fame? Absolutely.
Gene sometimes... well, he has his dream list.
When you start fooling around with drugs, you're hurting your creativity, you're hurting your health. Drugs are death, in one form or another. If they don't kill you, they kill your soul. And if your soul's dead, you've got nothing to offer, anyway.
The financial reward is great and I love the life I have, but all money makes possible is for you to stop worrying about money. Then you have freedom to live your life.
The great thing about rock-n-roll is you realize the top of the mountain is big enough for more than one band.
Nothing could ever stop Kiss. I've seen the band in down times where critics were like vultures circling overhead saying things like, 'Well, you know it's the end of your career.'
The only thing I can say is consistent in all my paintings is vivid color.
Youth is incredible because you really do feel invincible.
You can't enter the Olympics unless you do your routine to get in shape for it. The idea of going out on stage on a tour without having prepped for it would be suicide, literally.
My workout is always with a trainer because, quite honestly, I don't think most people are motivated enough to do what they need to on their own. You either need a spotter or you need a trainer. You need somebody there to push you to get that extra five.
When rock & roll is done with that fervor, it's close to gospel.
I was lucky enough as a kid to spend most of my weekends at the Fillmore East. On a great night, that was like a Holy Roller evangelical church.
I'm a great believer in not over-thinking lyrics. You might become technically better as a songwriter, but you lose what originally made your songs great.
I'm damn successful but I got here by not taking crap. I still don't take crap, so if anybody needs a champion, let it be me.
People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.
If I had my way, I'd always be onstage. But I won't always be able to be onstage.
As big as my ego may be, I'm really not of the belief that I can't be replaced. I didn't invent the wheel. There's someone else out there who can do what I do, maybe a little differently. I believe that Kiss is bigger than its individual members.
I had heard some women make comments about my chest, so why not show it off? Nobody wants to see a fat guy in tights. That wouldn't be fair to the fans.
Core strengthening is key to everything. It's not just about the way I look, but about stabilizing my body so I can perform better on stage.
I've seen myself do stuff on stage that was pretty amazing. I think that would be true for any athlete. Any top athlete will see something that they are very proud of. All my injuries will attest to the fact that besides being a musician, it comes down to being an athlete.
If I write for myself, I write a song and I bring in the musicians that are best suited to play it. There's a freedom there.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is marketing. You've got a bunch of faceless people in a back room who trademark a name that sounds very official. Well, if you had thought of it first, you would have been the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I've seen people around me write books, and somehow they're always in the center of everything that happened; they were the one who made it happen. There's been a lot of those books that didn't really interest me much.
There are no fans more rabid or devoted than KISS fans. KISS fans are what all other fans are measured against. That's how it came to be known as the KISS Army.
America is a business. If you can't afford to do something, no matter how much bellyaching everybody does... I'm so sorry, if you can't afford it, you shouldn't do it.
The whole idea of rock and roll lifestyle is a cartoon. It's a caricature. And at times, it's made up of people emulating others; a few who actually live that lifestyle and many who claim to live that lifestyle.
