Trent Reznor

When I was growing up, rock & roll helped give me my sense of identity, but I had to search for it.

When I was growing up, the people who liked the Beatles, I didn't like, so I didn't pay attention to them.

I doubt I'll ever pay someone to do a remix again, because there's some amazing stuff just coming out of bedrooms.

When I first played 'Wolfenstein 3D,' it blew my mind. It had a big impact on me.

In Nine Inch Nails, I've been the guy calling the shots since inception. I'd gotten used to that.

One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, 'Wait - you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it?'

I would love to be looked at some day - and I'm not ever saying I'm at this level - but I'd love to be mentioned in the same breath as a Bowie or an Eno. Those are the people that I admire artistically, their career trajectory, the integrity throughout their career, the bravery of their career.

I have been wildly enthused about gaming since I was younger, and a career path I chose not to go down but did really consider was getting into programming and game design.

It's a humbling thing, having kids. One of my sons came to rehearsals, and now he says Daddy's job is 'go play loud music.'

Nine Inch Nails is like building an army to go conquer. We build it, then we play, and we have to play so much to validate building it, financially. It leads to getting burn-out because a tour that would be fun if it lasted three weeks has to last 15 weeks.

When Twitter made its way to my radar I looked at it as a curiosity, then started experimenting. I approached that as a place to be less formal and more off-the-cuff, honest and 'human.'

This isn't meant to last. This is for right now.