"I never took guitar lessons. I took classical piano lessons from the age of six when we lived in Holland. And when we moved to America, it was just the typical thing except I was really good at it so was my brother."

"The name Van Halen, the family legacy, is going to go on long after I'm gone."

"On 'Van Halen,' I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude. But I'd say that at the time of 'Fair Warning,' I started concentrating more on songwriting. But I guess in most people's minds I'm just a gunslinger."

"I just consider myself slightly left-of-center. I'm not your average bear. I - what's the word? I'm not - normal."

"Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about."

"It's really hard for me to sometimes put myself out there, like 'Hey, how do you feel about making music together?' because maybe I'm afraid of rejection or I don't want to put anybody out. It's the Southerner in me, like, 'I don't mean to bother you but do you mind making a song?'"

"It is a enduring truth that beauty in art is the harmony of spirit, intellect, and craft — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music."