Top 60 Ian Mackaye Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I just have work to do; I just do it.”

— Ian Mackaye

2. “It doesn’t hurt me on a personal level, but it hurts me on a larger level of like, why are people so stupid? Why do we have to go through these unnecessary exercises. Fight crime, don’t fight me. If you really want to make a difference don’t fight me or Fugazi.”

— Ian Mackaye

3. “If You Want To Rebel Against Society, Don’t Dull The Blade.”

— Ian Mackaye

4. “Bars are meeting places and places to unwind. But at some point, what is culture unwinding from, and why can’t they meet anywhere else?”

— Ian Mackaye

5. “I don’t think it’s an ethical or moral issue, or even that people are stupid, but I do feel like as a culture things are out of balance, perverted, and inverted. Things that are ridiculous are worshipped, and things that are important are ridiculed. I think that’s something worth thinking about.”

— Ian Mackaye

6. “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.”

— Ian Mackaye

7. “Part of the way the work world works is not so much creating a separation between your work and your free time, but creating the illusion of a separation between your work and your free time. Every day is the weekend for me, which means I’m always busy.”

— Ian Mackaye

8. “I have other projects to do. I try not to let that documentation interfere with my present day.”

— Ian Mackaye

9. “The archiving industry, much like the funeral industry and the wedding industry, these industries can be very exploitative.”

— Ian Mackaye

10. “The amount of money that people spend on saving stuff, they try to feed you this idea that’s it’s more important.”

— Ian Mackaye

11. “When people who are songwriters say ‘That’s my property and if you give it away for free then I’ll lose my incentive,’ then, well, good riddance.”

— Ian Mackaye

12. “An unlocked door means that, occasionally, you might get a devil come in, but a locked door means you have thousands of angels just walk by.”

— Ian Mackaye

13. “It makes me sad, the way human beings talk smack. It’s why I don’t like irony. People are too gleeful to put some teeth into something.”

— Ian Mackaye

14. “I never imagine myself as anything. I’ve never had a goal or any future vision at all. I just do what’s in front of me.”

— Ian Mackaye

15. “I do feel like I have always, in my life, been inclined to be on the outside, walk a different path or something. Because of that, and increasingly over the years, my sense of distance from mainstream society or from the way culture works, I have a different kind of perception of it.”

— Ian Mackaye

16. “I do remember seeing Godspell or Jesus Christ Superstar, one of those. It was a liberation theology venue. Anything radical seemed to be accepted there. I definitely picked up the idea there that you should question authority.”

— Ian Mackaye

17. “I’m a fifth generation Washingtonian and I was born and raised here. My kid’s a sixth generation Washingtonian. Honestly I wish people didn’t move because I love the people of the city.”

— Ian Mackaye

18. “Minor Threat was an important band, believe me that it was important it in my life, but it belongs to an era that no longer exists. I’m not nostalgic. I think music today is much more important, because something can be done about it.”

— Ian Mackaye

19. “I’m not a religious person, and I’m not too interested in being a part of a religion, but I do like having some sort of communal gathering, and having some sense of peoples.”

— Ian Mackaye

20. “There’s also a lot of skateboard stuff, because I was a skateboarder. Somewhere around here I have one of my original boards.”

— Ian Mackaye

21. “My point of view is, I’m just a person, and there are times when I look at other people and think, ‘My God, they spend so much time thinking about things that seem so absurd.’ But I’m sure people must think the same thing about me.”

— Ian Mackaye

22. “Every song I ever wrote, I wrote to be heard. So, if I was given a choice that 50 years from now I could either have a dollar or knowing that some kid was listening to my song, I’d go with the kid listening to my song.”

— Ian Mackaye

23. “We had punks literally protesting Fugazi. I respect a boycott. I respect a conscionable boycott, but of all bands to boycott? Fight crime. If you really want to get out there, go fight crime.”

— Ian Mackaye

24. “I was into Ted Nugent, I was a Nugent guy. I was a skateboarder listening to Ted Nugent.”

— Ian Mackaye

25. “With Napster and the sharing of music, of course, there are going to be people who exploit it. Greed has no end. But there’s a lot of good that could happen. We shouldn’t let the economic concerns of the major labels infringe on our freedom to share music.”

— Ian Mackaye

26. “I don’t watch TV but occasionally I’ll read the Washington Post. I will say that sports are the only “real thing” on television.”

— Ian Mackaye

27. “Archiving is extremely expensive and time consuming. I’m sure an archivist would tell me I’m doing it wrong. It’s an industry that’s built upon essential ideas, and some of those practices are abusive.”

— Ian Mackaye

28. “What does bother me is that I have to spend time and energy dealing with the ramifications of what people do think about me.”

— Ian Mackaye

29. “I mean, why do people fight over sports? Because of the framework, the schematic of sports, those particular people seize upon these opportunities to be violent. And the number one problem using the same framework would be religion.”

— Ian Mackaye

30. “I think about Dischord. There’s been a pretty consistent notion that Dischord have been some sort of “overlords” of the scene. Some people have felt ’they are too cool for us, or they won’t put this out, etc. All we’re doing is our own work, our own thing. That’s all we’ve ever done. Our work.”

— Ian Mackaye

31. “It’s just hard to have a nuanced discussion with like a thousand people, 30 of which are white-power skinheads.”

— Ian Mackaye

32. “I’m not a sports guy. However it’s interesting to be in a place where people have a sporting fever. One time I was in Italy during one of the European soccer cups, and it’s interesting because it’s so electrifying.”

— Ian Mackaye

33. “I work so I don’t need to make rent through my songs, and I think if more people engaged with music without needing it to provide for their welfare, you’re not beholden to anyone.”

— Ian Mackaye

34. “I consider the piano my ‘main’ instrument and have been playing for as long as I can remember. It seems to me that I might have come up with something resembling a song as early as 4 or 5 years old.”

— Ian Mackaye

35. “Structures can be manipulated for ill as well, especially when people are dealing with issues of power, or control, or violence.”

— Ian Mackaye

36. “As hard as you try and create narratives about sports, once the ball is in the air, there’s not a damn thing you can do about it, it’s just very real.”

— Ian Mackaye

37. “I obviously use computers. My car is wondrous. My phone is amazing. I’ve already talked about the music I’m digitizing. Technology is fantastic, of course.”

— Ian Mackaye

38. “My focus is always on the day. What I’ve done behind me, I try to have respect for it, and keep an eye on it, and make sure it isn’t abused, and obviously be thoughtful about it, because it’s all real to me. I’m basically in every band I ever was in, and the songs, I still mean them all.”

— Ian Mackaye

39. “Why do we celebrate the opening of a bar so much?”

— Ian Mackaye

40. “I stand behind all the lyrics I’ve ever written; I don’t have a problem with that.”

— Ian Mackaye

41. “People will say “You must miss playing to a thousand people.” But I don’t. I might miss playing. That’s what I would miss, but I don’t miss it, because I am playing.”

— Ian Mackaye

42. “I have stuff from 1979, 1980 in my collection. But I also have things from 2012. So I don’t know if it’s memorabilia as much as it is holding on to things that I find relevant that most people might not.”

— Ian Mackaye

43. “It’s so interesting that humanity has to be defined by emotional strife or something. I don’t buy into that.”

— Ian Mackaye

44. “When someone writes a really nasty piece about me. I think they’re generally untrue because I think I’m a nice person.”

— Ian Mackaye

45. “I do not consider myself a teddybear. Just to be clear, I don’t feel sorry for myself.”

— Ian Mackaye

46. “I’m always happy when I hear about people selling records or selling books or selling movies. It makes me proud of them.”

— Ian Mackaye

47. “Record labels have enjoyed a 100-year monopoly of selling plastic and now they’re up against a different format.”

— Ian Mackaye

48. “The American underground punk scene, though, is a story worth remembering.”

— Ian Mackaye

49. “The only thing that drives music is the people who are making it.”

— Ian Mackaye

50. “Now anyone can move anywhere. I’ve made deep connections with people around the world since I tour everywhere that I will simply never see again.”

— Ian Mackaye