Sourced

• We can't be The Beatles. I can't shine their shoes. I can't sing as well as Paul or John. I can't write those kind of songs. But they would die in my armour and my eight-inch platform heels, and Paul can't spit fire, so there you have it."
  • Mojo magazine (December 2009), p. 40

What I've Learned (July 2002)

• You can't argue with facts and figures. Either people want it, in which case they pay for it, or it's two guys sitting around at the Plaza having a discussion, which means nothing. I mean, Titanic. I wasn't crazy about the movie. But you know what? I'm gonna shut up, because the people have spoken. End of story!

• KISS is the number-one American band in gold-record sales. In the world, only the Beatles and the Stones are ahead of us. Every other band should be wiping my ass. The line forms over there to the left.

• Prostitute yourself. As far as I'm concerned, that's even braver than waiting for the public to catch on.

• Anybody who picks up a guitar and tells you that there's some inner message that they're trying to convey . . . it's nonsense. They're not being honest. The reason they're doing this is they wanna get lots of chicks and they don't want to work for a living.

• People say, "I want to get laid a lot and make lots of money." That's not the right order.

• A whore, in my estimation, has more credibility than a wife, and I'll tell you why. A wife is supposed to marry you for love. A whore is not there for love, she's there to service you. Now, the difference between them is a whore, before she does her work, will tell you exactly what it is. She'll tell you, "Blow job? This'll cost you seventy-five dollars. This is not love, and after I'm done I never want to see you again." Full disclosure is what they call it in court. A wife will tell you shit. A wife will tell you nothing. She's about to marry you. If you get divorced, she's going to take 50 percent of your gross pretax dollars and try to get more. Now, before you get married, if you dare bring up the notion, "By the way, let's just be completely honest with each other, what happens if we break up?" she will cry and tell you, "That's so unromantic." You know who's more credible? The whore.

• "You can't buy love with money." Only a poor person says that.

• You shall not covet thy neighbor's wife? Well, how about if she goddamn covets me? What do you think about that?

• “I think I know it all, relatively speaking.”

Unsourced

• And in music, it's the great aphrodisiac that says that even though I'm short, fat, ugly, bald, and... and I'm hung like a second-grader, but if I'm in a rock band, I've got a better than average chance of bedding you down than if I was a dentist.

• I refuse to stand up in front of a rabbi and my friends and the woman I love - who I will tell you I can love with all my heart - and promise she will be the only one I will ever have until the day I die. That's a lie.

• I wanted to be in a band that gave bang for the buck. I wanted to be in the band who didn't look like a bunch of guys who, you know, should be in a library studying for their finals.

• I was never interested in being a rock star. I always wanted to be Boris Karloff.

• I'm in a weird band. We've done very well. The American Dream is alive and well.

• Life is too short to have anything but delusional notions about yourself.

• My mother is probably the wisest person I've ever known. She's not schooled, she's not well read. But she has a philosophy of life that makes well-read people seem like morons. (February 4, 2002 interview by Terry Gross with Gene Simmons on NPR's Fresh Air)

• My skin is more beautiful than yours. I would be quite more popular in jail if I so chose. (February 4, 2002 interview by Terry Gross with Gene Simmons on NPR's Fresh Air)

• The makeup is simply an extension of the personality and colors, clothing, makeup all express something.

• The notion is that if you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs. (February 4, 2002 interview by Terry Gross with Gene Simmons on NPR's Fresh Air)

• When you really think about it, I'm not delusional enough to think that what I do is important to life as we know it on this planet. No. But neither is what you do.

• You know why I'm pulling your leg? Because I can't touch it from where I am. (February 4, 2002 interview by Terry Gross with Gene Simmons on NPR's Fresh Air)

• It's that good being me.

• People say "They're making a spectacle of Themselves".I say you're goddamn right we are

• We want our audiences to get their money's worth

• Walk amongst the Natives by day.But in your heart,be Superman