Serj Tankian quotes

Serj Tankian is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and activist, best known as the lead vocalist of System of a Down. His powerful voice and politically charged lyrics have made a significant impact on the alternative metal scene. He is also recognized for his advocacy on social and human rights issues. Here are 52 of his quotes:

Pretending that we live doesn't make us alive. (Serj Tankian)

Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest.

Serj Tankian

Life is that perfect fine line between ironies.

Serj Tankian

The best way to do that is to pick up a new instrument or an instrument that you don't typically write on and see where it takes you. Whether it's using an acoustic guitar, or piano, or electronics as tools, all of these lead to creating different types of songs and I used all of these methods for this record.

Serj Tankian

I am more interested in how people interpret the phrase 'Elect The Dead' than what I may or may not have intended. I named the album after the track, which is a spiritual song about love, life and death and is the heaviest song on the album without having any heavy instruments.

Serj Tankian

The percentage of Americans in the prison system, has doubled since 1985.

Serj Tankian

Corporatization is the descendant of industrialization.

Serj Tankian

Civilization is a failure. We need to think what we can do together in love and peace.

Serj Tankian

Capitalism unchecked is not a democratic system.

Serj Tankian

If you're using live bass versus orchestral bass, you've got to make sure that you're not stepping on the toes of the other elements, so you've got to balance it out.

Serj Tankian

I think anytime that you go to the extreme of any mode of economics, be it capitalism or communism, you have these feedback mechanisms that make the system turn in on itself. (Serj Tankian)

In America, there's more of the question, should music be political or should it just be for entertainment purposes, whereas around the world that's not even an issue. I think people just assume that music should be everything.

Serj Tankian

I don't want to spend all my time working as an activist. I don't get satisfaction out of it. I'd rather be doing something else. I'm a musician.

Serj Tankian

I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan.

Serj Tankian

A lot of pop music is based on trying to make people remember it so that they'll buy it. To me, it was not about that.

Serj Tankian

I have a more direct avenue to expression as an artist than I ever would as a politician.

Serj Tankian

We first fought... in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.

Serj Tankian

People get so attached to a position which they identify themselves with that they just spurt it out, but they can't really give you a viable reason why they feel that way.

Serj Tankian

As an artist, you never want to write the same song again, you always want to challenge yourself to writing in a different way.

Serj Tankian

I've worked with some great orchestras and amazing classical musicians, but I don't like the conceptualization of classical music as an elitist form of art.

Serj Tankian

You can say a lot more with a poem than you can with a song, but with a song you can really be more powerful with it. You can express it a lot more powerfully. (Serj Tankian)

I think every artist should follow their vision, their hearts is what they need to reveal, not something that society is looking out for.

Serj Tankian

I'm not comfortable with just entertaining. Although I like entertaining, I also like bringing forward the truth of our times as minstrels used to in the old days.

Serj Tankian

Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.

Serj Tankian

Composing is what I love most from what I do. Each genre has a unique expression that you cannot supplant with another. All the records co-inspire each other though they are not tied conceptually in any way to another.

Serj Tankian

Previous
1 (Current)
2
3
Next

Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian - Image

Photo: Safi-iren, CC BY-SA 4.0

Occupation: American Musician
Born: August 21, 1967
Quotes count: 52

Related authors

Daron Malakian 5

American Musician

Tom Morello 19

American Guitarist

Serzh Sargsyan 17

Armenian Politician

Aaron Dontez Yates 2

American Musician

Corey Taylor 43

American Musician

David Draiman 6

American Musician

James Hetfield 32

American Guitarist

Geezer Butler 29

English Musician

Rick Rubin 13

American Businessman

Zack de la Rocha 13

American Musician