On AIDS
"This shit (AIDS) scares me. You know, one time and you're dead! Touring is the dangerous part. A lot of bands are going to be in trouble the way they carry on. I mean, we've been pretty bad, but on the last tour, no way! It was kinda, 'Screw that!' Some of the roadies are pretty sick, as far as wearing rubbers or whatever. I don't know. I've never done that before...ha ha ha...and that's only MAYBE safe. It's very unhappening, this whole thing."
James

"You can pick up a very shitty song to cover. I mean, the Foo Fighters doing 'Baker Street'? I don't get that at all. It does take me back to high school, I guess, or at least to a song that I completely @#$%& hated. So you have to be careful."
James

"We don't plan concepts. We didn't write RIDE THE LIGHTNING about death, or MASTER OF PUPPETS about manipulation. That just happens."
James

"Call it anarchy or whatever you want to--there's times when you wanna be able to do whatever the @#$%& you want and, y'know, life's always short, so why shouldn't you?"
James

"Back then (in highschool) you'd look under the music section of The Recycler for heavy metal, and there's like two people. The same people every fuckin week into 'sex and Motorhead.'"
James

"(On first jam with Lars) He had a @#$%& up, hella fuckin cheap Gemco kit or whatever. We told him, 'Yeah, we'll give you a call,' and we never even called him back!"
James

"I remember the first time we ever got an encore. It was a Monday night at two in the morning at the Troubadour and there was about ten people there but they were clapping and we came back for the encore. We were deciding on what song we were going to play and Lars starts up a different song! He just decided he wanted to play. And we hadn't practiced that song for like three months. I had forgot all the lyrics, but I went through the motions. And after the gig, I just turned right around and punched him out onstage! "You @#$%&!" I shouted. Got him in the gut. And people were going 'huh?'"
James

"We've always known that there's been a need or a want for a band like us. We've fought back and broken through all the bullshit of the business, and now it's great to be able to say 'Fuck off' to the whole business, and 'We did it our way' and blah blah blah. We've always had our own way of doing things..."
Lars

"We've stuck to our own beliefs, we haven't cheated anyone, and we've done what we wanted."
Lars

"We're no different from them (fans). We see the world like other people. We don't live in mansions, and we're not hiding behind fences and making our own pretentious fantasy world with chicks and mountains of drugs. We live in the real world, and the real world's an ugly place."
Lars

"Metallica likes to live on the edge, but you can only push it so far."
Lars

"A women should be able to make her own decisions whether or not she should have a baby. She should have control over her body, not the @#$%& government, congressman, or whatever."
Kirk

"In Denmark while recording Master Of Puppets, we hung out a lot. We'd go out and play poker for 8 hours straight after being up for 24 hours. We'd find a seafood restaurant that was open, eat raw oysters and drink beer, scream at the natives while we were drunk....that's some of my best memories of him."
Kirk

"One thing that constantly pisses me off is what's happening with the environment nowadays. I'm an environmentalist, though I think I probably create more than my share of noise pollution every time we play."
Kirk

"It's getting more comfortable for me to offer up ideas to Metallica. James Hetfield especially is really a genius when it comes to writing. It really amazes me sometimes. He can come up with the heaviest, chunking riffs, and then turn around and do something so pretty it makes you tingle. These guys are all the upper sect of classy musicians."
Jason

"I eat two hours before we go on and practice for a half hour. I've been walking out in the crowds. I put on my incognito disguise and check out the scene. It's cool to do that, soak up the vibe of the kids. A few recognized me, so I gave 'em passes."
Jason

"It's cool, having the control, the last word. It's very comfortable. We've always watched ourselves as far as keeping in shape. We base our whole day around the shows 'cause we want it to be as good as possible."
Jason

"We're getting a good draw, it's a @#$%& hell of a lot of fun. It is painful at first, our necks and lower backs really hurt. But asprin is a great drug."
Cliff