Michael Stipe

We're kind of an international phenomenon.

— Michael Stipe

If I'm tired of me, I'm sure the public is as well.

— Michael Stipe

Never eat broccoli when there are cameras around.

— Michael Stipe

Links have become the suburbs of the real world.

— Michael Stipe

“Here's a truck stop instead of St. Peter's. ”

— Michael Stipe

Everybody hurts sometimes Everybody cries

— Michael Stipe

Anybody that walks can sing.

— Michael Stipe

Love, love will be my strongest weapon

— Michael Stipe

There was never a golden era of American radio as far as I can tell.

— Michael Stipe

I really wanted to be on Six Feet Under as a corpse. That would be hysterical.

— Michael Stipe

My feeling is that labels are for canned food... I am what I am - and I know what I am.

— Michael Stipe

I'm tired of being this solemn poet of the masses, the enigma shrouded in a mystery.

— Michael Stipe

We don't get groupies.We get teenagers who want to read us their poetry.

— Michael Stipe

I'm afraid of everything. I'm not a naturally courageous person.

— Michael Stipe

They always want me to play myself and that's a big snooze.

— Michael Stipe

When we first started, we were a band from Athens and that was so off the map.

— Michael Stipe

Peter was sick of being a pop star, the guitar god, and so he decided to teach himself other instruments. Among the…

— Michael Stipe

In fact, a lot of critics seemed to consider R.E.M. the first American music since the '60s to break out on its…

— Michael Stipe

Super casual music listeners. That's most of the people in the world. And you have to understand, that's why Top 40 radio…

— Michael Stipe

The whole punk ethic was do-it-yourself, and I've always been very literal, especially as a kid. When they said that anybody can…

— Michael Stipe

“Death is pretty final./I'm collecting vinyl./I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world/'cause if heaven does exists/with a kickin' playlist/I don't…

— Michael Stipe

I think my apocalyptic feelings went deeper than [heavily influenced by Reagan and AIDS]. I'm really at peace with how afraid I…

— Michael Stipe

For me, as a music fan, visuals kind of steal away the purity of the song. My instinct is not to provide…

— Michael Stipe

Anything you do as a group is fraught with compromise... But everyone 's got to do that, right? It's part of being…

— Michael Stipe

But we're very much an American band and that's that. I think that's part of the appeal outside of this country and…

— Michael Stipe

There tend to be two different drives that lead young people toward music. One is that music provides an escape; it takes…

— Michael Stipe

We made part of the record in Miami, and I would go down to the beach, and not 20 feet from the…

— Michael Stipe

“If the storm doesn't kill me, the government will./Gotta get that outta my head./It's a new day today and the coffee is…

— Michael Stipe

It was '86. We were a big enough name and we had enough cache that MTV wanted to play us, so, along…

— Michael Stipe

I knew [Kurt Cobain] and his daughter. And Courtney [Love] came and stayed at my house. R.E.M. worked on two records in…

— Michael Stipe

Once I reached my 40s, I thought to myself that if I'm going to play live now, I need to really mean…

— Michael Stipe

I came to New York for the first time with Peter Buck at age 19. We spent a week living out of…

— Michael Stipe

“When I was young and full of grace And spirited - a rattlesnake When I was young and fever fell My spirit,…

— Michael Stipe

I was vegetarian, trying to eat from fast-food restaurants without meat. I didn't know how to eat properly and I was starving.…

— Michael Stipe

When we signed with Warner Bros., they knew what they were getting. They knew they weren't going to get some easily manipulated…

— Michael Stipe

I was vulnerable every day. Every night that I stepped on stage I was laying myself open.

— Michael Stipe

If you disagree with me, fine! Because that's the great thing about America, we can disagree!

— Michael Stipe

A wise man once said-'the skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave,'

— Michael Stipe

I think there were early critics who wanted us to change the world because the Sex Pistols failed.

— Michael Stipe

I went through a period where I was really tired of seeing and reading about myself.

— Michael Stipe