View source for Recurring lyrics

Many of [[Trent Reznor]]'s lyrics and (and sometimes song titles) are thematically similar across songs and albums. This is an expansion of a list compiled at [http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?t=13785 ETS] by user "Christ". [[Cover Songs|Covers]] and spoken parts from [[samples]] are not included in this list.

==Abandonment/rejection==
*[[She's Gone Away]]
*[[Terrible Lie]]: "I'm all alone in a world you must despise" / "my morals left to decay"
*[[Ringfinger]]: "you just leave me nailed here"
*[[Suck]]: "all that was true is left behind"
*[[Piggy]]: "you left me here I'm all alone"
*[[Hurt (song)|Hurt]]: "the feelings disappear" / "everyone I know goes away in the end"
*[[Closer]]: "help me get away from myself"
*[[The Becoming]]: "even when I'm right with you I'm so far away" / "and he's left to decay"
*[[I Do Not Want This]]: "if I could just reach you maybe I could leave this place"
*[[Please]]: "push it away but it all comes back again" / "but it just left me dead" / "you can never leave me"
*[[And All That Could Have Been (song)|And All That Could Have Been]]: "you won't find me here" / "take this and run far away" / "left with a trace of all that was"
*[[The Day The World Went Away (song)|The Day The World Went Away]]: "all the insides left cold and gray"
*[[Somewhat Damaged]]: "made the choice to go away" / "in the back, off the side, far away" / "all alone, by myself, where were you?"
*[[The Big Come Down]]: "find a place with the failed and forgotten"
*[[The Fragile (song)|The Fragile]]: "I can't watch her slip away"
*[[Where Is Everybody?]]: "everything pushes me further away"
*[[Disappointed]]: "just get out of here"
*[[Beside You In Time (song)|Beside You In Time]]: "I am all alone this time around"
*[[Only (song)|Only]]: "yes, I am alone but then again I always was"
*[[Right Where It Belongs]]: "and you're really all alone"
*[[All The Love In The World]]: "hiding in the crowd I'm all alone" / "sometimes I get so lonely I could –"
*[[Came Back Haunted (song)|Came Back Haunted]]: "I am not who I used to be"
*[[Find My Way]]: "now that you have gone away" / "ghosts of who we used to be"

==Afraid to see==
*[[Heresy]]: "he sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see"
*Right Where It Belongs: "would you find yourself, find yourself afraid to see?"
*[[Capital G (song)|Capital G]]: "there's a lot of me inside you, maybe you're afraid to see"

==A million miles away==
*[[1,000,000]]: "I feel a million miles away"
*Hurt: "if I could start again, a million miles away"
*All The Love In The World: "I've become a million miles aw(ay)" - in addition, the phrase appears in the accompanying unsung lyrics printed on the ''[[With Teeth (halo)|With Teeth]]'' PDF poster: "right beside is still a million miles away"

==Asleep==
*[[Dear World,]]: "yes, everyone seems to be asleep"
*[[The Lovers]]: "everyone seems to be asleep but me"
*[[God Break Down The Door]]: "we sleep hypnotized from the center" / "I believe I am sleeping after all" (The lyrics are not included in the final cut of the song, but included in the digital data.)

==Becoming==
*The Becoming
*[[Now I'm Nothing]]: "oh, what I have become!"
*[[Gave Up]]: "after everything I've done, I hate myself for what I've become"
*Closer: "help me become somebody else"
*Hurt: "what have I become, my sweetest friend?" 
*[[We're In This Together (song)|We're In This Together]]: "I've become impossible"
*[[Even Deeper]]: "just how damaged have I become?"
*[[The Great Below]]: "the destiny I've chose, all becoming clear"
*Where Is Everybody?:"come on there has got to be someone, hasn't yet become so numb and succumb"
*[[The New Flesh]]: "yes I am becoming" / "I've become"
*[[Me, I'm Not]]: "and it's hard to believe just what I've become"
*All The Love In The World: "I've become a million miles aw(ay)"
*Only: "I'm becoming less defined as days go by"
*[[Vessel]]: "I am becoming something else, I am turning into God"
*[[10 Miles High]]: "I swore to God I'd never turn into you"
*[[Head Down]]: "all your hate, what you've become"
*[[Everything]]: "I've become something else"
*[[Shit Mirror]]: "I'm becoming something new"
*[[Not Anymore]]: "watched myself become somebody else" (The lyrics are not included in the final cut of the song, but included in the digital data.)

==Beginnings==
*[[The Beginning Of The End]]
*The New Flesh: "and this is how it all begins"
*[[The Wretched]]: "back at the beginning"
*Please: "this is how it begins"
*And All That Could Have Been: "ending what had begun"
*Came Back Haunted: "I'm afraid this has just begun"
*[[All Time Low]]: "see this is where the fun begins"
*Me, I'm Not: "I can't shut it off, this thing I've begun"
*Dear World,: "I begin to go through another that we have been"
*[[I Know You Can Feel It]]: "just like that, it begins" / "the moment it begins"

Though the lyrics may not have been written by Trent Reznor, "[[Recursive Self-Improvement]]" by [[How To Destroy Angels]] features the line "this is how it all begins".

==Belonging==
*Right Where It Belongs
*[[Starfuckers, Inc. (song)|Starfuckers, Inc.]]: "now I belong, I'm one of the chosen ones"
*All The Love In The World: "watching all the insects march along, seem to know just right where they belong"
*[[You Know What You Are?]]: "go on get back to where you belong"
*[[With Teeth (song)|With Teeth]]: "you've finally found the place where you belong"
*Beside You In Time: "everything is back where it belongs"
*[[Home]]: "I return to the only place I've ever felt that I belong"
*[[God Given]]: "you should get where you belong"

==Beside you==
*Beside You In Time
*We're In This Together: "the farther I fall I'm beside you"
*[[Lights In The Sky (song)|Lights In The Sky]]: "I am staying right beside you"

==Black==
*[[Black Noise]]
*[[Cold And Black And Infinite Tour]]
*[[Branches/Bones]]: "cold and black and infinite and nothing left to lose"
*Came Back Haunted: "its smile is red and its eyes are black"
*[[Head Like A Hole (song)|Head Like A Hole]]: "head like a hole, black as your soul"
*Piggy: "black and blue and broken bones"
*[[The Hand That Feeds (song)|The Hand That Feeds]]: "but inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold"
*[[I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally]]: "as black as the night can get"
*She's Gone Away: "we keep licking while the skin turns black"
*[[Deep]]: "there's a big black hole gonna eat me up someday"
*The New Flesh: "I can almost see the blackest eyes"
*With Teeth: "it's in her kiss, the blackest sea"
*[[Last]]: "look through these blackened eyes"

Though the lyrics may not have been written by Trent Reznor, "[[BBB]]" by How To Destroy Angels features the line "listen to the sound of my big black boots".

==Blind==
*Heresy (Blind)
*[[Happiness In Slavery (song)|Happiness In Slavery]]: "the blind have been blessed with security"
*Suck: "once I could see now I am blind"
*[[Ruiner]]: "those that you keep blind will suddenly realize"
*Ringfinger: "wrap my eyes in bandages"
*[[Running]]: "as good as blind"

==Blood/bleeding==
*[[March Of The Pigs (song)|March Of The Pigs]]: "stains like the blood on your teeth"
*Ringfinger: "working my hands until they bleed"
*I Do Not Want This: "and nothing comes bleeding out of me just like a waterfall I'm drowning in"
*[[Reptile]]: "angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress" / "she has the blood of reptile just underneath her skin"
*[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]: "so much blood for such a tiny little hole"
*[[The Perfect Drug (song)|The Perfect Drug]]: "my blood wants to say hello to you"
*Where Is Everybody?: "pleading and needing and bleeding and breeding"
*The Hand That Feeds: "will you chew until it bleeds?" / "for the blood on which we dine"
*[[Survivalism (song)|Survivalism]]: "all bruised and broken, bleeding"
*[[The Good Soldier]]: "blood hardens in the sand"
*[[My Violent Heart]]: "our blood will stay" / "our blood, our grace"
*[[Letting You]]: "the dying left to bleed"
*[[In Two]]: "bleed, have to purge, what you were"
*The Becoming: "the blood has stopped pumping"
*[[The Only Time]]: "the sweat in your eyes, the blood in your veins"
*[[Various Methods Of Escape]]: "bled from my own hand"
*She's Gone Away: "you dig in places till your fingers bleed"
*[[The Background World]]: "the world is bleeding out"

===Bleeding through===
*Bleedthrough was the working title for ''With Teeth''
*[[Every Day Is Exactly The Same (song)|Every Day Is Exactly The Same]]: "a little bit comes bleeding through"
*Beside You In Time: "feel the little pieces bleeding through"
*Everything: "and his seed that bleeds right through to me"
*The Background World: "behind the background world is always bleeding through"

==Broken==
*[[Broken]]
*Gave Up: "still cannot fix this broken machine"
*Happiness In Slavery: "just some flesh caught in this big broken machine"
*Piggy: "black and blue and broken bones"
*The Becoming: "he's covered with scabs, he is broken and sore"
*Hurt: "full of broken thoughts, I cannot repair"
*Somewhat Damaged: "broken bruised forgotten sore"
*[[No, You Don't]]: "broken down see through soul"
*Survivalism: "all bruised and broken, bleeding"
*[[Echoplex]]: "I built this place with broken parts" 

===Bruised===
*Head Like A Hole: "God Money let's go dancing on the backs of the bruised"
*Somewhat Damaged: "broken bruised forgotten sore"
*Survivalism: "all bruised and broken, bleeding"
*Branches/Bones: "the makeup hides the bruise"

==Burning==
*[[Burn (song)|Burn]]
*[[Burning Bright (Field On Fire)]]
*Heresy: "burning with your god in humility"
*The Big Come Down: "there is a hate that burns within"
*[[Non-Entity]]: "burning down the world, the ashes and debris"
*[[Sunspots]]: "peel off our skin we're gonna burn what we were to the ground"
*God Given: "and it burns so bright"
*Various Methods Of Escape: "a place to bury every thing I did and burn it to the ground"

===Fire===
*Burning Bright (Field On Fire)
*[[Sanctified]]: "as the words spill out like fire from her lips"
*Gave Up: "wake up in flames"
*All The Love In The World: "the stars are all afire in the sky"
*Survivalism: "you see your world on fire"
*[[In This Twilight]]: "it is watching us, and the world we set on fire"
*My Violent Heart: "into fire you can send us, from the fire we return"
*Sunspots: "fuck in the fire and we'll spread all the ashes around"
*Various Methods Of Escape: "the fire illuminates our final scene"

==Calling==
*Even Deeper: "I hear them call I cannot stay"
*Sunspots: "I hear it calling and I come cause I can't disobey"
*[[Who Wants To Live Forever?]]: "voices calling"

==Closeness==
*Closer
*[[Closer To God]]
*The Great Below: "ocean pulls me close"
*10 Miles High: "I'm getting closer all the time"
*[[Love Is Not Enough]]: "hey the closer we think we are, well it only got us so far"
*[[While I'm Still Here]]: "closest I have ever come"

==Cracks==
*You Know What You Are?: "I tried to patch up the cracks and the holes that I have to hide"
*[[Getting Smaller]]: "can kind of see out the cracks when I press up to the wall"
*Right Where It Belongs: "what if you could look right through the cracks?"
*[[Not So Pretty Now]]: "the cracks begin to show"
*The Wretched: "the clouds will part and the sky cracks open"

==Decay==
*[[Ripe (With Decay)]]
*Terrible Lie: "my morals left to decay"
*The Becoming: "the blood has stopped pumping and he's left to decay"
*Somewhat Damaged: "drink the fountain of decay"
*The Day The World Went Away: "but in his voice I heard decay"

==Deserving==
*Head Like A Hole: "you're going to get what you deserve"
*Last: "pigs we get what pigs deserve"
*[[Meet Your Master]]: "maybe you get what you deserve"
*[[Sin (song)|Sin]]: "carry out my sentence, I get what I deserve"
*In Two: "what you want, what you deserve"
*Ahead Of Ourselves: "we wound up building this we deserve"

==Disappearing==
*The Becoming: "all pain disappears"
*Deep: "right here make it all disappear"
*We're In This Together: "well they've got to make it disappear"
*The Great Below: "washes me away, makes me disappear"
*Please: "I can disappear"
*And All That Could Have Been: "maybe I'll disappear"
*[[The Line Begins To Blur]]: "the more I disappear
*Disappointed: "just get out of here, disappointed, disappear"
*All The Love In The World: "all the jagged edges disappear"
*Lights In The Sky: "I can't disappear"
*Running: "just slip away and disappear"

==Didn't even notice==
*Dear World,: "hey look, you didn't even notice"
*[[Less Than]]: "focus? we didn't even notice"

==Disease==
*Terrible Lie: "my head is filled with disease"
*Suck: "this disease I give to myself"
*Reptile: "my disease, my infection"
*Ruiner: "wearing your disease"
*In Two: "just become, your disease"
*[[As Alive as You Need Me To Be (song)|As Alive as You Need Me To Be]]: "the way it makes me feel, infection"

==Dragging/pulling/pushing==
*[[Down In It (song)|Down In It]]: "it was pulling me down"
*[[Mr. Self Destruct]]: "I drag you down I use you up"
*March Of The Pigs: "step right up, march, push"
*The Perfect Drug: "pull the stars from the sky" / "wrenching, dragging, shaking me"
*The Wretched: "just to push you down"
*Please: "push it away but it all comes back again"
*Where Is Everybody?: "everything pushes me further away"
*We're In This Together: "they pick and they pull"
*The Great Below: "ocean pulls me close"

==Dreams==
*[[The Eater Of Dreams]]
*[[Sanctified]]: "I still dream of lips I never should have kissed"
*[[Something I Can Never Have]]: "my favorite dreams of you still wash ashore"
*Terrible Lie: "seems like salvation comes only in our dreams"
*Suck: "don't want the dreams you try to sell"
*Gave Up: "perfect little dream"
*Mr. Self Destruct: "I am the end of all your dreams"
*Heresy: "he dreamed a god up"
*The Becoming: "I'm stuck in this dream"
*[[Eraser]]: "dream you"
*Even Deeper: "in a dream I'm a different me"
*With Teeth: "it runs deeper than you dare to dream it could be"
*Head Down: "this is all a dream, and none of you are real"
*Right Where It Belongs: "what if all the world you think you know is an elaborate dream?"
*Burning Bright (Field On Fire): "I can't tell if I am dreaming anymore"
*[[Shadow Over Me]]: "in this dream, used to think I believe"

==Drowning==
*The Only Time: "and swim in it until I drown"
*Last: "new sweat to drown me in"
*Fist Fuck: "help I'm drowning"
*The Becoming: "drowns out all I hear"
*Heresy: "drowning in his own hypocrisy"
*I Do Not Want This: "just like a waterfall I'm drowning in"
*Please: "sink until I drown"
*The Great Below: "the currents have their say"
*Lights In The Sky: "watching you drown"

==Echo==
*[[Echoes]]
*Echoplex
*The Good Soldier: "gunfire in the street echoes out a beat"
*Something I Can Never Have: "echoing your voice just like the ringing in my ears"
*Please: "echoing the sound"
*Survivalism: "hypnotic sound of sirens, echoing through the street"
*Non-Entity: "the echoes in my eyes, of all they used to see"
*[[Copy Of A]]: "I am just an echo of an echo of an echo"

==Eyes==
*Down In It: "just then a tiny little dot caught my eye" / "but the needle's already in my eye"
*Ringfinger: "wrap my eyes in bandages"
*The Only Time: "the sweat in your eyes"
*[[Kinda I Want To]]: "maybe god will cover up his eyes"
*Last: "look through these blackened eyes"
*Happiness In Slavery: "don't open your eyes"
*Heresy: "he sewed his eyes shut"
*Only: "well the tiniest little dot caught my eye"
*The Great Below: "all the world has closed her eyes"
*The New Flesh: "I can almost see the blackest eyes"
*The Beginning of the End: "I got my mark, see it in my eyes"
*Non-Entity: "the echoes in my eyes, of all they used to see"
*[[Sunspots]]: "sunspots cast a glare in my eyes"
*Came Back Haunted: "its smile is red and its eyes are black"
*Shit Mirror: "caught reflecting in your eyes"
*Who Wants To Live Forever?: "something in my eye"

==Fading==
*Down In It: "what I used to think was me is just a fading memory"
*Something I Can Never Have: "just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be"
*And All That Could Have Been: "tracks will fade in the snow" / "gone, fading, everything"
*Non-Entity: "now I'm afraid I'm fading out of sight"
*Only: "I'm becoming less defined as days go by, fading away..."
*Getting Smaller: "I'm afraid I am starting to fade away"
*Beside You In Time: "I can feel me start to fade away"
*Not So Pretty Now: "but you're just fading, and fading, and fading, and fading the fuck away"
*Echoplex: "and I just slowly fade away"
*Who Wants To Live Forever?: "I might just fade away"

==Feel==
*I Know You Can Feel It
*Suck: "how does it feel?"
*Gave Up: "forgot how it feels, well almost"
*Fist Fuck: "oh you just wish I could feel that way too"
*I Do Not Want This: "to those who know what it really feels like" / "don't you tell me how I feel, you don't know just how I feel"
*Last: "still feel it all slipping away"
*The Big Come Down: "it feels like it keeps coming from the inside"
*[[The Way Out Is Through]]: "we feel so small"
*The Wretched / [[The Great Collapse]]: "now you know this is what it feels like"
*The Hand That Feeds: "and you feel just fine"
*Every Day Is Exactly The Same: "I can feel their eyes are watching"
*Only: "and I had this funny feeling"
*Getting Smaller: "don't know what to feel"
*Sunspots: "I feel it coming" / "I have to apologize for the way I feel"
*Beside You In Time: "feel the little pieces bleeding through" / "I can feel me start to fade away"
*Right Where It Belongs: "feel the hollowness inside of your heart"
*Home: "and it feels I'm getting to the end"
*Me, I'm Not: "I feel it coming apart"
*In This Twilight: "and it feels like, like it was a friend" / "do you wonder if it feels the same?" / "what it feels like, and I won't feel again" / "and the longing that you feel"
*[[Discipline]]: "feels like I'm wearing down"
*Hurt: "the feelings disappear"
*Kinda I Want To: "I can't shake this feeling from my head"
*1,000,000: "I feel a million miles away"
*[[Demon Seed]]: "and I can feel it breathe"
*Echoplex: "you feel me breathe, I am watching you"
*The Great Below: "I can still feel you, even so far away"
*My Violent Heart: "feel it coming now"
*[[Underneath It All]]: "I can still feel you"
*Branches/Bones: "feels like I've been here before"
*Dear World,: "I feel like I have lived so long"
*She's Gone Away: "cut along the length (but you can't get the feeling back)"
*Shit Mirror: "got a new face and it feels all right"
*As Alive as You Need Me To Be: "the way it makes me feel" / "feel, I can finally feel"
*Who Wants To Live Forever?: "something in the way it feels here"
*Shadow Over Me: "and it feels so real"
*Even Deeper: "for once in my life I feel complete"
*Zero-Sum: "and it feels like we're living in that split-second of a car crash"

==Fist==
*[[Fist Fuck]]
*[[Wish (song)|Wish]]: "fist fuck"
*Survivalism: "I got my fist I got my plan I got survivalism"
*Demon Seed: "and I will use my fist"
*Getting Smaller: "I think I'm losing my grip, but I can still make a fist"
*Sin: "your kiss, your fist"

==Free/Freedom==
*Everything: "I am free"
*Burning Bright (Field On Fire): "I am forgiven, I am free"
*The Lovers: "and I'm free to return to the place where I already am" / "free, take me into the arms of the lovers" / "the center has moved on and all that's left is free"

==God==
*God Break Down The Door
*God Given
*[[Play The Goddamned Part]]
*10 Miles High: "I swore to God I'd never turn into you" 
*Closer: "you get me closer to God"
*Head Like A Hole: "God Money I'll do anything for you" 
*Heresy: "God is dead" 
*Home: "God knows how much I've tried to" 
*[[Maybe Just Once]]: "oh God, what's coming to me?" 
*Right Where it Belongs: "your devils and your gods, all the living and the dead" 
*Ringfinger: "you just leave me nailed here hanging like Jesus on this cross" 
*Suck: "there is no God up in the sky tonight" 
*Terrible Lie: "hey God!" 
*The Wretched: "and God himself will reach his fucking arm through"
*The Beginning of the End: "God helps the ones who can help themselves"
*The Good Soldier: "'cause God is on our side"
*Vessel: "I am a turning into God" / "my God...oh my God"
*Starfuckers, Inc.: "my god sits in the back of the limousine, my god comes in a wrapper of cellophane, my god pouts on the cover of the magazine, my god's a shallow little bitch trying to make the scene"
*Capital G: "traded in my God for this one"
*[[Zero-Sum]]: "may God have mercy on our dirty little hearts"
*Find My Way: "lord my path has gone astray" / "pray the Lord my soul to take" / "oh dear Lord hear my prayer"
*While I'm Still Here: "God forgive me if I cry"
*Burning Bright (Field On Fire): "and oh my God, I have missed you"
*Ahead Of Ourselves: "created us in His image"
*Shit Mirror: "I think I knew the whole goddamned time"
*[[The Collector]]: "there are so God damned many of them"
*The Becoming: "Goddamn this noise inside my head"

==Greed==
*Capital G: The title of the song refers to greed.
*[[The Warning (Year Zero song)|The Warning]]: "your greed, self-importance and your arrogance"
*March Of The Pigs: "please, greed, feed (no time to hesitate)"
*Letting You: "your politics of greed"
*Not So Pretty Now: "keep trying to fill it all up with your greed"

==Head==
*Head Like A Hole
*Head Down
*Terrible Lie: "my head is filled with disease"
*Something I Can Never Have: "scraping through my head"
*Kinda I Want To: "I can't shake this feeling from my head"
*Suck: "I bow my head to confess"
*Last: "my head got lost along the way"
*[[Big Man With A Gun]]: "maybe I'll put a hole in your head"
*The Becoming: "Goddamn this noise inside my head"
*Mr. Self Destruct: "I am the voice inside your head"
*The Downward Spiral: "spilling out of my head"
*I Do Not Want This: "I have lived so many lives all in my head"
*The Perfect Drug: "I got my head but my head is unraveling"
*Somewhat Damaged: "then my head fell apart"
*[[Into The Void (song)|Into The Void]]: "pictures in my head of the final destination"
*Please: "the world is over and I realize it was all in my head"
*The New Flesh: "and in my head this is how it all begins"
*And All That Could Have Been: "I am locked in my head"
*All The Love In The World: "they don't sound as good outside my head"
*Getting Smaller: "got my head on a spring"
*Right Where It Belongs: "what if all the world's inside of your head"
*The Good Soldier: "right over my head"
*Capital G: "now nod your head because you know that I'm right"
*[[The Great Destroyer]]: "nod your head" / "listen to the shit they pump into your head"
*[[Satellite]]: "I'm inside your head"
*Various Methods Of Escape: "a line of lyric looping in my head"
*Ringfinger: "right in time with the song that's repeating in my head" (The lyrics are not included in the final cut of the song, but printed out as the original lyrics.)

==Hiding==
*Terrible Lie: "there's nothing left for me to hide"
*Mr. Self Destruct: "I am the hate you try to hide"
*The Becoming: "hiding backwards inside of me"
*The Big Come Down: "there is no way I can hide"
*Where Is Everybody?: "when all I'm really doing is trying to hide"
*Somewhat Damaged: "is a place where I hide, where I stay"
*No, You Don't: "tries so hard to hide"
*The Fragile: "where we can run and hide"
*All The Love In The World: "hiding in the crowd I'm all alone"
*You Know What You Are?: "I have to patch up the cracks and the holes that I have to hide"
*Love Is Not Enough: "well, it hides in the dark"
*Every Day Is Exactly The Same: "well, I'll hide it behind something"
*Right Where It Belongs: "are you hiding in the trees?"
*Me, I'm Not: "I define myself by how well I hide"
*The Good Soldier: "there's nowhere left to hide"
*Running: "I'm running out of places I can hide from this, I'm running out of ways to keep on hiding this"

==Holes==
*Head Like A Hole
*Down In It: "now just this hole that's open wide"
*Gave Up: "watching the hole, it used to be mine"
*Wish: "I'm the one with this big fucking hole"
*The Downward Spiral: "so much blood for such a tiny little hole"
*Hurt: "the needle tears a hole"
*Big Man With A Gun: "maybe I'll put a hole in your head"
*Deep: "there's a big black hole gonna eat me up someday"
*The Wretched: "stuck in this hole with the shit and the piss"
*Somewhat Damaged: "tear a hole exquisite red"
*No, You Don't: "smiling in their faces while filling up the hole"
*Please: "it fills up the hole but it grows somewhere else instead"
*You Know What You Are?: "I have to patch up the cracks and the holes that I have to hide"
*My Violent Heart: "there's bullet holes where my compassion used to be"
*Not So Pretty Now: "you got a hole that you've got to feed"
*As Alive as You Need Me To Be: "it's filling up the hole inside you"

==Home/Returning home==
*[[Home]]
*La Mer: "and the sea will come to kiss me for I am going home"
*[[The Life You Didn't Lead]]: "home, returning from somewhere, to someplace safe"
*Everything: "I am home, I believe, I am home, I am free. I am home, I can see. Always here, finally"
*[[This Isn't The Place]]: "carry me home"
*Vessel: "I have finally found my home"
*My Violent Heart: "when you return to the place that you call home"

==Inside of me==
*Vessel: "when I put you inside of me"
*Came Back Haunted: "they put something inside of me"
*The Becoming: "hiding backwards inside of me" / "it's a part of me, it's inside of me"
*Burn: "this thing inside of me" / "something inside of me"
*Heresy: "he tries to tell me what I put inside of me"
*Everything: "but this thing that lives inside of me"
*As Alive as You Need Me To Be: "it's filling up the hole inside you"
*Who Wants To Live Forever?: "stay here inside me"

==Keeps (coming, calling, etc.)==
*The Wretched: "you can try to stop it but it keeps on coming"
*The Big Come Down: "it feels like it keeps coming from the inside"
*Please: "and it keeps repeating"
*The Hand That Feeds: "I keep holding on to what I want to believe" 
*With Teeth: "keeps holding on" 
*Right Where It Belongs: "you keep looking but you can't find the woods" 
*Survivalism: "I turned just keep on walking"
*Into The Void: "but myself keeps slipping away"
*The Good Soldier: "I keep telling myself"

==Knees (down on or getting up off)==
*The Hand That Feeds: "will you get up off your knees" / "will you stay down on your knees"
*The Beginning of the End: "down on your knees, you'll be left behind"
*My Violent Heart: "on hands and knees we crawl"
*March Of The Pigs: "crawl right up on your knees"
*Closer: "through every forest, above the trees, within my stomach, scraped off my knees"
*Terrible Lie: "I'm on my hands and knees"
*Capital G: "well I used to stand for something, now i'm on my hands and knees"
*1,000,000: "on your hands and your knees"

===Crawling===
*Down In It: "I was swimming in the haze now I crawl on the ground"
*Getting Smaller: "I'd be happy to crawl"
*March Of The Pigs: "crawl right up on your knees"
*My Violent Heart: "on hands and knees, we crawl"
*The Way Out Is Through: "but still we crawl"
*In This Twilight: "as it crawls across a final time"
*1,000,000: "kind of hard to see when you crawl"

==Loneliness==
*Terrible Lie: "I'm all alone in a world you must despise"
*Piggy: " you left me here I'm all alone"
*Reptile: "need to contaminate to alleviate this loneliness"
*All The Love In The World: "hiding in the crowd I'm all alone" / "sometimes I get so lonely I could..."
*Beside You In Time: "I am all alone this time around"
*Right Where It Belongs: "and you're really all alone"
*Vessel: "we will never be alone"
*Only: "yes I am alone"
*Somewhat Damaged: "all alone, by myself, where were you?"
*[[The Idea Of You]]: "it gets so lonely in here"

==Loss==
*[[The Persistence Of Loss]]
*She's Gone Away
*Eraser: "lose me"
*In This Twilight: "let me take away your doubt"
*Discipline: " feels like I'm losing touch"
*Head Like A Hole: "no you can't take that away from me"
*Terrible Lie: "don't take it away from me"
*Last: "I pissed it all away" / "my head got lost along the way"
*[[That's What I Get]]: "you took away all my self confidence"
*Something I Can Never Have: "you make this all go away"
*I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally: "thought he lost everything, then he lost a whole lot more" / "where did everything get lost"
*Various Methods Of Escape: "I think I could lose myself in here"
*March Of The Pigs: "I think he's losing it"
*All Time Low: "we lost too much along the way"
*Piggy: "I lost my shit because of you"
*Only: "you might say I'm losing focus"
*Me, I'm Not: "and I'm losing control"
*My Violent Heart: "and soon you'll lose the will to care"
*Somewhat Damaged: "lost my faith in everything"
*Even Deeper: "lost my way, can't come back"

==Machines==
*[[Pretty Hate Machine]]
*Gave Up: "still cannot fix this broken machine"
*Happiness In Slavery: "just some flesh caught in this big broken machine"
*Mr. Self Destruct: "I am the silencing machine"
*The Becoming: "I beat my machine"
*Somewhat Damaged: "this machine is obsolete"

==Memory==
*Down In It: "just a fading memory"
*Hurt: "but I remember everything"
*I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally: "I remember sometimes"
*You Know What You Are?: "remember where you came from, remember what you are"
*Love Is Not Enough: "I can't remember what it is" / "in your eyes is a place worth remembering" 
*Every Day Is Exactly The Same: "I can't remember how this got started"
*The Life You Didn't Lead: "and you are not living in a memory"
*Zero-Sum: "do you remember the time we" / "and I know you remember"
*While I'm Still Here: "while we can, remember when"
*In Two: "I don't believe you can even remember which one you are"
*[[I Would For You]]: "so long I can't remember when"
*[[Purest Feeling (song)|Purest Feeling]]: "I wish I could remember everything she said"
*She's Gone Away: "I can't remember what she came here for" / "I can't remember much of anything anymore"
*The Idea Of You: "remember, I don't wanna remember anymore"
*[[Over And Out]]: "am I remembering you correctly"
*Who Wants To Live Forever?: "can't remember why"

==Naive/naïveté==
*That's What I Get: "to think that I was so naïve"
*Mr. Self Destruct: "I am the prayers of the naïve"
*The Hand That Feeds: "so naïve"
*I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally: "the flowers of naïveté"
*My Violent Heart: "standing there in all your grand naïveté"

==Nothing can stop me now==
*Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)
*Piggy: "nothing can stop me now, I don't care anymore"
*Ruiner: "you didn't hurt me, nothing can stop me now"
*Big Man With A Gun: "me and my fucking gun, nothing can stop me now"
*[[La Mer]]: "rien ne peut m'arrêter maintenant" (Translates to "nothing can stop me now". Spoken in Creole French)
*Sunspots: "and nothing can stop me now"
*We're In This Together: "none of them can stop us now"

==Pieces==
*Beside You In Time: "feel the little pieces bleeding through"
*And All That Could Have Been: "all these pieces and promises and left behinds"
*The Perfect Drug: "it's not as much fun to pick up the pieces"
*Copy Of A: "I am little pieces, pieces that we picked up on the way"
*The Big Come Down: "try so hard to make the pieces all fit"
*Various Methods Of Escape: "little pieces of a plan"
*Where Is Everybody?: "all the pieces don't fit"
*Gave Up: "gonna smash myself to pieces"
*Now I'm Nothing: "I smashed myself to pieces"
*Branches/Bones: "still can make out pieces with the opening sewed shut"
*I Know You Can Feel It: "all the pieces of the plan"

==Pigs==
*Piggy
*March Of The Pigs
*[[Le Pig]] studio
*Last: "pigs we get what pigs deserve"
*Heresy: "he made a virus that would kill off all the swine"
*God Given: "we are the divine, separated from the swine"
*[[Ahead Of Ourselves]]: "with our snouts in the dirt"
*[[Isn't Everyone]]: "all the little piggies cannot help themselves"

==Piss==
*Last: "worn out from giving it up, my soul I pissed it all away"
*The Warning: "your greed, self-importance and your arrogance, you piss it all away"
*The Wretched: "stuck in this hole with the shit and the piss"
*Terrible Lie: "hey God, I really don't know who I am in this world of piss" (The lyrics are not included in the final cut of the song, but printed out as the original lyrics.)

==Profanity==
===Fuck===
*Fist Fuck
*Starfuckers, Inc.
*Something I Can Never Have: "just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be"
*The Only Time: "while the devil wants to fuck me in the back of his car"
*Wish: "now there's nothing more fucked up I could do" / "big time, hard line, bad luck, fist fuck" / "I'm the one with this big fucking hole"
*March of the Pigs: "I want to fuck it up"
*Closer: "I want to fuck you like an animal"
*Ruiner: "the only pure thing left in my fucking world is wearing your disease" / "and maybe that fucked me up much more than you'll ever know"
*I Do Not Want This: "I want to fuck everyone in the world"
*Big Man With A Gun: "just for the fuck of it" / "I'm hard as fucking steel" / "me and my fucking gun"
*Eraser: "fuck you"
*The Downward Spiral: "a lifetime of fucking things up fixed in one determined flash"
*Somewhat Damaged: "fuck the rest and stab it dead" / "too fucked up to care anymore" / "where the fuck were you?"
*The Wretched: "and God himself will reach his fucking arm through"
*The Big Come Down: "smash it apart just for the fuck of it"
*You Know What You Are?: "don't you fucking know what you are"
*Love Is Not Enough: "I've gone all this fucking way"
*Only: "there is no fucking you"
*Getting Smaller: "I haven't got fucking anything"
*Sunspots: "fuck in the fire and we'll spread all the ashes around"
*Not So Pretty Now: "but you're just fading, and fading, and fading, and fading the fuck away"
*Capital G: "those motherfuckers didn't last too long"
*1,000,000: "blow my fucking brains out"
*All Time Low: "your voice in fucking echo stereo" / "just how'd we fucking end up here?"
*Now I'm Nothing: "I'm gonna fuck myself up" / "I fucked it all away"
*Branches/Bones: "don't give a fuck anymore"
*Less Than: "too many fucking people"
*Burning Bright (Field On Fire): "oh, burn motherfucker" / "like the fucking end" (The latter lyric is not included on the final cut of the song, but is printed on the physical component.)

===Shit===
*Shit Mirror
*Piggy: "lost my shit because of you"
*Ruiner: "serving his shit to his flies"
*Hurt: "I wear this crown of shit"
*The Wretched: "stuck in this hole with the shit and the piss"
*Where Is Everybody?: "thought I really didn't give a shit"
*Capital G: "don't give a shit about the temperature in Guatemala"
*The Great Destroyer: "listen to the shit they pump into your head" 
*You Know What You Are?: "you better take a good look cause I'm full of shit"

==Purpose==
*Copy Of A: "imprinted with a purpose, a purpose that's become quite clear today"
*Every Day Is Exactly The Same: "I think I used to have a purpose"

==Realization==
*Eraser (Denial; Realization)
*Sin: "am I just too stupid to realize"
*Gave Up: "it took you to make me realize"
*The Perfect Drug: "my soul is so afraid to realize"
*Please: "and I realize it was all in my head"
*Burn: "why did you put it there, did you not realize"
*Lights in the Sky: "I've come to realize we all have our place"
*Love Is Not Enough: "the sooner we realize"
*Ruiner: "those that you keep blind will suddenly realize"

==Said and done==
*The Great Below: "after all is said and done"
*Sunspots: "when everything is said and done"
*Zero-Sum: "and soon it will be all said and done"

==Scab==
*Only: "well the tiniest little dot caught my eye and it turned out to be a scab" / "picking at that scab"
*The Becoming: "he's covered with scabs and he is broken and sore" 
*Something I Can Never Have: "still picking at this scab" (The lyrics are not included in the final cut of the song, but printed out as the original lyrics.)

==Sea==
*La Mer: ("La Mer" is translated from French to literally "The Sea")
*Ringfinger: "deeper than the sea"
*The Great Below: "staring at the sea" / "ocean pulls me close"
*With Teeth (song): "the blackest sea"

==Sin==
*Sin
*Ringfinger: "I'm just dying for your sins"
*Please: "all the flesh, all the sin"

==Skin==
*Down In It (Skin)
*[[Underneath The Skin]]
*Sin: "it gets under my skin"
*Last: "fresh blood through tired skin"
*Suck: "itches my skin right off my back"
*Happiness In Slavery: "just words and so much skin"
*March Of The Pigs: "take the skin and peel it back"
*Reptile: "just underneath her skin"
*I Do Not Want This: "bamboo puncturing this skin"
*Somewhat Damaged: "shedding skin succumb defeat"
*We're In This Together: "as they peel apart the skin"
*I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally: "his skin just wasn't thick enough"
*Deep: "your skin speaks up but your lips couldn't say it"
*My Violent Heart: "our bones, our skin"
*Vessel: "I let it get under my skin"
*Terrible Lie: "my skin is begging you"
*Discipline: "I see you left a mark, up and down my skin" 
*Sunspots: "peel off our skin we're gonna burn what we were to the ground"
*All Time Low: "you barely even pierced the skin"
*In Two: "shed, your precious skin"
*She's Gone Away: "we keep licking while the skin turns black"
*The Lovers: "hot swollen skin want me take me perfect embrace"
*God Break Down The Door: "wondering if you'll remove my skin" (The lyrics are not included in the final cut of the song, but included in the digital data.)

===Flesh===
*The New Flesh
*[[Complications Of The Flesh]]
*Ringfinger: "sever flesh and bone"
*Suck: "her temple walls are made of flesh"
*Happiness In Slavery: "just some flesh caught in this big broken machine"
*Please: "all the flesh, all the sin"
*Vessel: "I can leave all of this flesh behind"

==Sky==
*Lights In The Sky
*All Time Low: "and we will live forever, baby, and stretch across the sky"
*The Warning: "when it came down from the sky"
*Zero-Sum: "they're starting to open up the sky"
*Non-Entity: "the sky is not the same shade of blue"
*The Wretched: "the clouds will part and the sky cracks open"
*The Perfect Drug: "turn off the sun, pull the stars from the sky"
*Suck: "there is no God up in the sky tonight"
*Down In It: "kinda like a cloud i was up, way up in the sky"
*Burning Bright (Field On Fire): "and blacken out the sky and every last one of you"

==Slipping/slipping away==
*The Slip
*[[Slipping Away]]
*That's What I Get: "slipping on the tears"
*Deep: "you're slipping through"
*[[999,999]]: "how did I slip into (this)?"
*Now I'm Nothing: "I let it slip away, now I'm nothing"
*Last: "still feel it all slipping away"
*The Becoming: "I might just slip away"
*Into The Void: "but myself keeps slipping away"
*The Fragile: "I can't watch her slip away"
*While I'm Still Here: "falls apart, slips away"
*Running: "just slip away and disappear"
*The Lovers: "I've slipped out of time again"

==Smash==
*March Of The Pigs: "I want to smash it up"
*Eraser: "smash me"
*Gave Up: "smashed up my sanity, smashed up integrity, smashed up what I believed in, smashed up what's left of me, smashed up my everything, smashed up all that was true, gonna smash myself to pieces"
*Now I'm Nothing: "I'm gonna smash myself to pieces"
*The Big Come Down: "smash it apart just for the fuck of it"
*Love Is Not Enough: "for you to go and take this and smash it apart"

==Solipsism==
*I Do Not Want This: "I have lived so many lives all in my head"
*Please: "the world is over and I realize it was all in my head"
*Only: "you were never really real to begin with, I just made you up to hurt myself" / "there is no you, there is only me"
*Right Where It Belongs: "what if all the world you think you know is an elaborate dream?"
*Head Down: "this is all a dream and none of you are real"
*The Idea Of You: "none of this is happening"

==Stopping==
''see also: [[Recurring lyrics#Nothing can stop me now|Nothing can stop me now]]''
*We're In This Together: "none of them can stop us now"
*Sunspots: "but I can't stop what has begun"
*The Line Begins To Blur: "isn't anyone stopping me?"
*My Violent Heart: "you cannot stop us all"
*Me, I'm Not: "hey, can we stop?"
*Discipline: "you know once I start I cannot stop myself"
*Came Back Haunted: "just can't stop, came back ha-ha-haunted"
*The Lovers: "maybe I could stop it (if I wanted to)"

==Tiny little dot==
*Down In It: "just then a tiny little dot caught my eye it was just about too small to see, but I watched it way too long and that dot was pulling me down"
*Only: "well the tiniest little dot caught my eye"

==That which could have or would have been==
*And All That Could Have Been
*The Wretched: "all the what abouts, and all the might have could have beens"
*The Great Below: "for all we could have done, and all that could have been"
*Every Day Is Exactly The Same: "I wish this could have been any other way" / "then again, that might have been a dream"
*Sunspots: "I think I could have been someone"
*I Would For You: "there was a place that could have been"
*While I'm Still Here: "oh all the things that might have been"

==Throwing away==
*Throw This Away
*Terrible Lie: "you made me throw it all away"
*Gave Up: "give it to me, I throw it away"
*Last: "I want you to throw me away"

==Used up==
*We're In This Together: "all used and beaten up"
*Head Down: "all used up half way through"
*Love Is Not Enough: "left for dead and all used up" (unsung lyrics printed on the ''With Teeth'' PDF poster)

==Waking up==
*[[I Can't Seem To Wake Up 2017]]
*Even Deeper: "I woke up today to find myself in the other place"
*Gave Up: "wake up, wake up in flames"
*We're In This Together: "awake to the sound"
*Home: "I awake to find I'm not at all where I should be"
*1,000,000: "I wake up on the floor"
*Everything: "but this thing that lives inside of me will surely rise and wake"
*The Idea Of You: "wait, wake, breathe, believe"
*Less Than: "we awake in a place we can barely recognize, yeah"
*Not Anymore: "and I can't seem to wake up"
*Shadow Over Me: "hard to tell if I'm awake anymore"

Though outside of the direct [[Nine Inch Nails]] spectrum, the extended version of the ''[[Bird Box Original Score]]'' contains a track called "[[Can't Seem To Wake Myself Up]]".

==Waving goodbye==
*[[Wave Goodbye Tour]]
*Down In It: "I looked him right in the eye and said goodbye"
*Now I'm Nothing: "wave, wave, wave, wave goodbye"
*With Teeth: "wave goodbye to what you were"
*Lights in the Sky: "the lights in the sky are waving goodbye"
*Came Back Haunted: "I said goodbye"
*Everything: "wave goodbye, wish me well"

[[Category: NIN Songs]]