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Quote by 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 am.”

Quote by Michael Stipe

Author

Michael Stipe is an influential American singer known for his distinctive voice and musical talent. He is a founding member of the iconic American rock band R.E.M., which achieved massive success globally since the 1980s. Stipe is celebrated for his emotive lyrics and stage presence, leaving a profound impact on the music industry. more

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

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“I used to eat burgers and steak, and I would just be knocked out afterward; I had to give it up.”

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“By the time [of modern] generation was coming of age sexually, there was already this idea of safe sex. But that didn't exist for me. I came out of the free-swinging '60s and '70s. It was free love, baby. That was it. We had very liberal sex-ed classes in 1973, a yearlong environmental science class, and then Women's Lib and Gay Liberation. So it's insane to go from that to Reagan and AIDS. It was like, "What happened? Where's my future?"”

“Our generation was supposed to be about trying to deal with nuclear concerns and environmental disasters.”

Trying Deals Generations Concern Environmental Nuclear Disaster Supposed To Be Our Generation

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“I was a teenager, we were pretty much fully indoctrinated, thanks to sexual scare tactics. I remember so many public-health commercials with a B-actor in a fake alley background warning us to use protection or telling us the only real safe choice was abstinence. We were highly frightened of sex from day one. There was no free-swinging '90s.”

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“I don't find R.E.M. to be nihilistic. There is a constant undertone of joyous optimism. I'm not going to kill myself to Patti Smith or R.E.M.”

Optimism Constant Joyous

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“I've never written a song that's hopeless. I'm not a hopeless person. I'm crazily optimistic. I crazily see the good in people. I crazily see the way out of a terrible situation. I crazily try to be the diplomat. If there are two warring factions in my life, I want them to agree to disagree at the very least.”

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“When I write, I tend toward melancholy, and the few times that I've tried pure joy in music, it doesn't really work that well. The joy can be through catharsis. I think that's what I do well, and observation.”

Thinking Writing Wells Joy Pure Observation Melancholy Catharsis Pure Joy

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“I distinctly remember a conversation with my band in the van where I was having a complete meltdown. It was 1984, I think, and I was huddled in the back corner of our van and saying, "I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this." I didn't want to play any more shows. I just wanted to stop.”

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“I went through this difficult time [in the 1984] when we were making our third record where I kind of lost my mind. That's when the bulimia kicked in. And that's when I got really freaky.”

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