"I write, I write, I always write"
About this Quote
The line lands like a mantra, three strikes against inertia. For Tom Araya, the longtime voice and bassist of Slayer, writing is not a moment of inspiration but a state of being. Repetition turns a claim into a vow; the insistence reveals discipline as much as desire. It evokes the grind behind extreme music, the quiet, solitary work that underpins all the volume and velocity on stage.
In thrash metal, everything is hammered into shape: riffs are iterated, rhythms tightened, syllables carved so they lock to the beat. Araya’s role sits at the crossroads of bass, voice, and language, where breath, meter, and meaning have to align under pressure. To keep writing is to keep refining the marriage of word and rhythm, to chase a line that can cut cleanly through the noise. The cadence of the phrase mirrors a downpicked riff: steady, relentless, uncompromising.
His career shows what that persistence yields. Across decades of touring and controversy, writing supplied both the fuel and the frame for confronting difficult subjects. He has often approached darkness with a reporter’s eye, turning headlines and human costs into songs that witness rather than preach. The Grammy-winning Eyes of the Insane, inspired by reportage on soldiers returning from war, exemplifies how observation and empathy become lyric substance. The work is not mere provocation; it is craft shaped by lived tension, including a personal faith set against the band’s incendiary imagery. Story, not dogma, is what carries the weight.
Saying always raises the stakes further. Bands age, bandmates are lost, scenes shift, and stamina becomes a question. The answer here is simple and stubborn: keep making. The phrase holds identity, method, and endurance in one breath. It is the quiet engine behind a loud legacy, the reminder that even the most ferocious sound depends on the patient, continuous act of putting words in order, one line, then another, then another.
In thrash metal, everything is hammered into shape: riffs are iterated, rhythms tightened, syllables carved so they lock to the beat. Araya’s role sits at the crossroads of bass, voice, and language, where breath, meter, and meaning have to align under pressure. To keep writing is to keep refining the marriage of word and rhythm, to chase a line that can cut cleanly through the noise. The cadence of the phrase mirrors a downpicked riff: steady, relentless, uncompromising.
His career shows what that persistence yields. Across decades of touring and controversy, writing supplied both the fuel and the frame for confronting difficult subjects. He has often approached darkness with a reporter’s eye, turning headlines and human costs into songs that witness rather than preach. The Grammy-winning Eyes of the Insane, inspired by reportage on soldiers returning from war, exemplifies how observation and empathy become lyric substance. The work is not mere provocation; it is craft shaped by lived tension, including a personal faith set against the band’s incendiary imagery. Story, not dogma, is what carries the weight.
Saying always raises the stakes further. Bands age, bandmates are lost, scenes shift, and stamina becomes a question. The answer here is simple and stubborn: keep making. The phrase holds identity, method, and endurance in one breath. It is the quiet engine behind a loud legacy, the reminder that even the most ferocious sound depends on the patient, continuous act of putting words in order, one line, then another, then another.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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