I grew up on Michael Jackson, Pat Benetar, and Van Halen - all the things coming out of the television.

Making your band your career just seems like a pipe dream when it's not happening, and when it does, it seems so surreal.

It's never been about what we want others to see: it's about what we want to see; it's about what we want to do. We only have a career because of our fans, but we have to keep making music for the reason we started making music.

I was a bicycle messenger when Alkaline Trio was formed as a way to make ends meet before the band became a career, and I've just always been a cyclist - I BMX'd, and then I got really into - through messengering - I got really into road bikes and fixed gears, which I still have.

Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.

We do not believe that death should be a taxable event.

I lived for nearly seven years with the awareness that death was my everyday companion.

Patrick Henry did not say, 'Give me absolutely safety or give me death.' America is supposed to be about freedom.