“When Van Halen started out, there was no path to fame. We just played what we liked. Even today it always comes down to the simplicity of rock and roll.”

You know, most people, they want to go to Hollywood. They want to be a star. They want to be a rock star. That thought never entered any of our minds, the Van Halen family.

Actually, if I could deliberately sit down and write a pop hit, all my songs would be pop hits! Let’s put it this way. I play what I like to hear. And sometimes I like to hear something poppy, and sometimes I don’t.

I’m not a drunk anymore, but since they cut out my tongue, I sound drunk.

It’s all about sound. It’s that simple. Wireless is wireless, and it’s digital. Hopefully somewhere along the line somebody will add more ones to the zeros. When digital first started, I swear I could hear the gap between the ones and the zeros.

If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that’s a wonderful thing.

Major third complications can be overcome by lots of alcohol.

I never dreamt of being a musician for my livelihood. I certainly never would have wanted to be in the business that I’m in, meaning the fame and the glory, the glitter, the rock star, the famous part.

A guitar is just theoretically built wrong. Each string is an interval of fourths, and then the B string is off. Theoretically, that’s not right, all the strings should be off.

It makes me feel kind of weird, but obviously the Man Upstairs gave me something and it touches people, and I’m just so blessed.

It’s always about the music, never about anything else.

A guitar is a very personal extension of the person playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually connected to your instrument. I’m very brutal on my instruments, but not all the time.

I don’t really know what inspires me to write the music I do, but usually, the music will set the tone for the lyrics.

I’m blessed with a good pair of ears. That’s how I fooled my piano teacher. I’d watch his fingers and I’d listen to it, and I just kind of basically learned it by myself.

I applied to Uncyclopedia Bassists, and was accepted!!

We’re musicians. We make music for a living. It’s that simple. Nothing else matters.

I took classical piano lessons from the age of five.

I’m not a celebrity. I’m just the same Simone. I just have two Olympic Gold medals now.

As a sportsperson, the best thing is people recognising you and loving you for what you do. For me, glamour is 100 people in the hotel feeling happy to see you.

You need to look like a lady at the Oscars. Otherwise, Joan Rivers will tear you apart. Then again, you aren’t really anyone till Joan Rivers tears you apart.

I just knew that was what I wanted to do. I was going to perform as a singer; I was going to perform as a dancer, and I was, you know, going to do movies and be an actress. I was going to do it or die trying. That’s what my life was.

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

Sometimes I just want to be left alone and be a normal kid for, like, five minutes. That’s tough when the paparazzi are chasing you.

If anyone can figure out how to balance my celebrity and my dual careers in music and film, it’s me. I don’t feel frightened; I feel challenged.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.