I never really understood this song, and all those saying it was about a relationship didn't really help me either. After reading Brett's inpirations for the song ([i]"I was accused by a loved one of being ‘broken.’ I guess the point of the song is really that our flaws are what make us human. They don’t detract from our humanity."[/i]), I have finally fomulated my own interpretation.

I agree this song may be focused on 2 people (rather than a different person per verse, as I had originally thought), but at the same time is reflecting all humanity.

[b][i]"She said, thanks but I'm broken.
I guess you must have misspoken.
What a laugh, I've never been chosen by anyone."[/i][/b]
This first verse is showing a girls reaction to someone talking to her, or wanting to be her friend. She is shocked and assumes the person to have misspoke, because she believes herself "broken" since she has never had any friends before.

[b][i]"She was barely a teen,
Hanging out in between,
Just a part of the scene.
With mercurial smile
And incurable style,
She was only a dream."[/i][/b]
This goes on to explain just how lonely this girl is: she is ignored by people so much that she feels like she is part of the scenery. She even goes as far as questioning whether she is real, or just an observer within someone elses dream. The "incurable style" would indicate she is a social outcast, simply deemed by her appearance. All these lead me to believe this young girl is homeless.

[b][i]"How's that, he didn't know a thing about
Making love to the kind of girl you read about."[/i][/b]
A lot of people interpret this as a beautiful and popular girl - or some sort of sex symbol. Personally, I see this as 'a girl you read about in the news papers', which could mean a girl who was kidnapped, raped, murdered or all three.

[b][i]"He said, I'm bound to be broken.
My daddy bet that I'd amount to nothing.
He won't let anybody show him anything."[/i][/b]
This is from the boys point of view. He also deems himself 'broken' similar to the girl. He blames this on the abuse and most importantly; the neglect from his father.

[b][i]"He was a troubled child,
Had been down for a while,
Always kept to himself."[/i][/b]
This boy is also a loner, like the girl. He may regard himself unworthy of attention or love, an attitude that is common in neglected children.

[b][i]"No she couldn't defend,
He only wanted a friend,
Now he's made something else."[/i][/b]
The first line has multiple meanings to me. It means she couldn't resist going with the boy as she was desperate for human contact, and didn't want to be alone. This would make her an easy target, and she couldn't defend against the boys attacks.
As for the "something else", I do not believe it to be an accidental child - instead I believe it means the boy has made the girl a victim - whether that be rape or murder.

[b][i]"It's so sad, no one saw it coming,
The paper said that he hit the ground running."[/i][/b]
This would lead to the boy having "snapped" and attacked the girl out of bottled rage, unable to restrain himself and stop. No one would have seen it coming because the boy wasn't known for violence, and maybe no one knew of the neglect.

[b][i]"Oh yeah, I know I'm not broken.
A little cracked, but still I'm not broken.
I wanna laugh, but I think that I'm choking on reality."[/i][/b]
From the boys perspective, he is realizing that he is not broken (though he previously believed he was). He's not a broken human, but he's not perfect either (thus "cracked").
Upon realising this he wants to laugh at the old notion of being a broken being. But he can't laugh because of the reality of his actions - he has just hurt this girl.

[b][i]"When the world is turning for you, Don't turn on me,"[/i][/b]
Originally, I thought the line "world is turning for you" was simply the Earth spinning around as time goes by normally a happily: [i]"Just because your life seems normal to you, don't put mine down because it seems broken in your eyes"[/i].
While it doesn't fit in with the story in the song, it is still an important message to get out there.

The meaning within the story is that [i]"just because you have problems, doesn't mean you can take it out on me."[/i]

[b][i]"Who are you here to repair,
Well I don't know what you mean."[/i][/b]
[i]"Are you here to help me, or help yourself?"[/i] His initial actions towards the girl could be seen as being friendly and trying to help a girl in need, but upon attacking her he is only releasing his own anger and fustration. A previous line would indicate, while he may have initially intended to help her, he 'snapped' and his actions became self-serving.

[b][i]"You could never resist
Glorifying despair,"[/i][/b]
This reads as a massive cry for attention: the boy couldn't stop himself from snapping, in an attempt to gain attention (which had been lacking in his life). This would lend itself to explaining his revelation. Humans are programmed to want attention - yet he was convinced he didn't need nor deserve it. Upon snapping at the girl, he realized he needs the attention just as much as any human, and he therefore must be human.

[b][i]"Well now it's coming to you
And I don't really care."[/i][/b]
This is the girl warning the boy of the consequences of his actions, and that she couldn't care less no matter how much pain he will go through.

[b][i]"While I'm not the kind to insist,
You couldn't have missed, we must co-exist."[/i][/b]
This seems to be the boy saying: while he may not be the best example of co-existance (having just attacked the girl), humans still need to co-exist as we are all residents of the same world.

[b][i]"So please listen to me, There is no such thing as human debris."[/i][/b]
Theres no such thing as a broken human (human debris is another way of saying broken human, or fragmented human).

The ending repeats [b][i]"I'm unbroken!"[/i][/b], emphasising the point that humans are not broken, it is [i]"our flaws are what make us human. They don’t detract from our humanity." - Brett Gurewitz[/i]

If it wasn't for the first verse, I would assume that 'she' is a personification of drug usage.

This song is actually a compilation of different events to depict the human condition. Everyone goes through shit, and I believe that this song expresses the feelings of the lyricist on the matter. The events, again, were not necessarily tied together.

I think this song is about a kid who was really down on life; the kid meets a girl that he only dreamed of. "He only wanted a friend, now he's made something else" means he got her for a girlfriend. "And the papers said he hit the ground running" means the kid and the girl had a bad split and he killed himself. So the whole song is about a troubled kid who takes the only road out he can find: death.

This is song is kind of about teenage pregnancy. A beautiful girl meets a troubled kid and they get to know each other, and hook up. And so they eventually got intimate, but he didn't know a thing about making love to the sort of girl you read about, and practiced unsafe sex, and got her pregnant.
"It's so sad, no one saw it coming": the kid's father regarded him as a failure, his depression rendered him an outcast. So no one saw him as the type to get laid, let alone get a girl pregnant. But he did. And everyone was surprised. "He only wanted a friend, now he's made something else": now that he's got her pregnant, he decides to stick with her. So he is coming out of his depression because it seems like finally has some sort of a cause. The girl's of course, reluctant, apparently unable to afford an abortion, and angry at the guy for giving her such a burden. But to reassure her, he says: "Well I'm not the kind to insist, You couldn't have missed, We must co-exist, So please listen to me, There's no such thing as human debris." While his father is even more furious at him and feels that his son cheated him, so he kicks him out of the house and tells him that his trying to reassure the girl is pointless (who are you here to repair? Well, I don't know what you mean!). That all he's been doing all his life was whining and complaining and now that real misery is coming his way (even though he doesn't feel that way), his father doesn't want to bother. "When the World is turning for you, Don't turn on me, Who are you here to repair, Well I don't know what you mean, You could never resist, Glorifying despair, Well now it's coming to you and I don't really care."

Simply it's about a relationship between two people who both seem to want different things from it; for the girl she has had few options in her life (never been chosen) for the guy he's been told (that I'd amount to nothing) he's worthless. So they both have a feeling of being nothing, and by meeting each other they find they have something.Yet, it is more for the girl here, when she is chosen; she realizes, that she can be chosen and it takes away her feeling of worthlessness. For the guy it doesn't, because, as in so many relationships, we still feel worthless, and when you are insecure you will always lose that to which you try to hold onto. Hence ("he didn't know a think about making love to the kind of girl you dream about"). The guy doesn't know how to handle this, but the girl has found herself worth. With the lines "when the world is turning for you" it's clear that they are both now in different places. The girl has moved on and the guy still feels worthless, so the things they shared are gone. "Who are you here to repair.." perhaps when the first got together she accepted him and now she wants to change him and he "wont let anybody show him anything" and he doesn't understand why she is doing this. "You could never resist glorifying despair, it's coming to you and I don't even care" seems to suggest that maybe she is even pushing him further into the worthless feeling because she likes it and when she can't find it with him she looks elsewhere. Perhaps he knows the road to despair leads to feeling desperate and he doesn't care. The idea of not being broken, is that despite what she wanted: to perhaps push him further into feeling worthless. He wasn't broken by her, cracked, but not broken. She tried, but couldn't.

I think this song is about a guy and girl who had an awkward relationship and eventually separate on very bad terms, and not the "I hope I never see you again" kind. From the lyrics, I would guess the girl is attractive ("the kind of girl you read about", what the world says is an attractive girl) and the guy is just a kid that's had a rather crummy life (Daddy bet that I'd amount to nothing, troubled child, down for a while, always kept to himself) isolated, neglected by his parent(s) and depressed. They get together somehow (the song doesn't really touch on that) and the guy opens up to her and tells her about his troubling life and how worthless he feels. The girl gives herself to the guy to comfort him (well I'm not the kind to insist, there's no such thing as human debris) They have sex but I think when the song says "no she couldn't defend", it's not so much as rape as the girl would've felt terrible if she didn't give him something. He gets her pregnant (now he's made something else, no one saw it comin) and runs away when he finds out. (paper said that he hit the ground runnin) I would guess that her parents found out and the guy was considered a rapist at this point and the paper just means he showed up in the newspapers. I'm sure this kind of situation would leave both parties mentally scarred for life especially at a younger age. The chorus generally mentions how they both want to think that they can get on with a normal life but find themselves in denial (choking on reality).

Just thought I would leave a quick opinion on the use of "mercurial smile." Mercurial is of mercury, metal or messenger of Roman Gods. Either way it refers to something fickle or volatile. Assuming fickle it would be saying that the girl was unreliable or inconsistent. Tying this in with the rest of the lyrics I get a boy who is depressed, goes searching for comfort finds a girl from the streets as a friend (prostitute) and ends up with somewhat more than he bargained for. Maybe committing some rash action, suicide seems unlikely but plausible with the lyrics.

I think that the line "no one saw it coming, the paper said that he hit the ground running" means that the guy was scared shitless because something happened, maybe the girl got pregnant. I think the "paper" is a note that he left her.

Brett said in an interview, from the J files or something, that this song was related to his battle with drugs. He said that during his battle, people would say he was 'broken.' The song could also be interpreted as a 'story' or message about these disenfranchised kids, and how people thought they were messed up or weird because they were different. Especially the part where it says "he said I'm glad to be broken, my daddy said that I'd amount to nothing" kind of plays on the way that these 'screwed up' children actually enjoy making people look twice at their lives. The beginning of the song, where it says "she said thanks, but I'm broken, I guess, you must have misspoken what a laugh I've never been chosen by anyone" deals with how these kids are left behind, and when someone tries to be nice to them, the kid takes it as an insult or such. At the end of the song, however, it almost seems as if it's trying to attack this sort of living, saying "you could never resist, glorifying despair, well now it's coming for you, and I don't really care." It's kind of saying, living like this isn't worth it, so don't come crying to me because you're all down! About yourself, there are things to live for, find them, and don't just live in a hole your whole life.

"With mercurial smile": could Brett mean Liz Mercure?

To me this song is about being used. I'm sure that most of us have been had the feeling of giving someone everything that you're able to and then being cast aside in return. A supposed love one gets what they want out of you when you're at a moment of weakness or due to plain naivety on your own part ("He only wanted a friend now he's made something else"). People often seek comfort when things are going bad but are quick to leave when life starts going his/her way ("When the world is turning for you don't turn on me.") People use and are used daily.

To me, this isn't a song about social issues in America, but more just personal demons. It deals with the frailty of being a teenager in love, which is something that is usually missing from BR. It's got the sex, it's got the death, and it's got that idea that to maintain the status quo you have to put a smile on your face and look twenty times stronger than you ever could dream of being. Being cracked and broken is simply being human and imperfect.